Callinectes sapidus (from the Greekcalli- = "beautiful", nectes = "swimmer", and Latinsapidus = "savory"), the blue crab, Atlantic blue crab, or regionally as the Chesapeake blue crab, is a species of crab native to the waters of the western Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, and introduced internationally.

Callinectes sapidus is a decapod crab of the swimming crab family Portunidae. The genus Callinectes is distinguished from other portunid crabs by the lack of an internal spine on the carpus (the middle segment of the claw), as well as by the T-shape of the male abdomen.[4] Blue crabs may grow to a carapace width of 23 cm (9.1 in). C. sapidus individuals exhibit sexual dimorphism. Males and females are easily distinguished by the shape of the abdomen (known as the "apron") and by color differences in the chelipeds, or claws. The abdomen is long and slender in males, but wide and rounded in mature females. A popular mnemonic is that the male's apron is shaped like the Washington Monument, while the mature female's resembles the dome of the United States Capitol.[3] Claw color differences are more subtle than apron shape. The immovable, fixed finger of the claws in males is blue with red tips, while females have orange coloration with purple tips.[5] A female's abdomen changes as it matures: an immature female has a triangular-shaped abdomen, whereas a mature female's is rounded.[6]

Other species of Callinectes may be easily confused with C. sapidus because of overlapping ranges and similar morphology. One species is the lesser blue crab (C. similis). It is found further offshore than the common blue crab, and has a smoother granulated carapace. Males of the lesser blue crab also have mottled white coloration on the swimming legs, and females have areas of violet coloration on the internal surfaces of the claws.[7]C. sapidus can be distinguished from another related species found within its range, C. ornatus, by number of frontal teeth on the carapace. C. sapidus has four, while C. ornatus has six.[8]

The crab's blue hue stems from a number of pigments in the shell, including alpha-crustacyanin, which interacts with a red pigment, astaxanthin, to form a greenish-blue coloration. When the crab is cooked, the alpha-crustacyanin breaks down, leaving only the astaxanthin, which turns the crab to a bright purple.[9]

Eggs of C. sapidus hatch in high salinity waters of inlets, coastal waters, and mouths of rivers and are carried to the ocean by ebb tides.[5] During seven planktonic (zoeal) stages blue crab larvae float near the surface and feed on microorganisms they encounter. After the eighth zoeal stage, larvae molt into megalopae. This larval form has small claws called chelipeds for grasping prey items.[19] Megalopae selectively migrate upward in the water column as tides travel landward toward estuaries. Eventually blue crabs arrive in brackish water, where they spend the majority of their life. Chemical cues in estuarine water prompt metamorphosis to the juvenile phase, after which blue crabs appear similar to the adult form.[5]

Blue crabs grow by shedding their exoskeleton, or molting, to expose a new, larger exoskeleton. After it hardens, the new shell fills with body tissue. Shell hardening occurs most quickly in low salinity water where high osmotic pressure allows the shell to become rigid soon after molting.[19] Molting reflects only incremental growth, making age estimation difficult.[5] For blue crabs, the number of molts in a lifetime is fixed at approximately 25. Females typically exhibit 18 molts after the larval stages, while postlarval males molt about 20 times.[20] Male blue crabs tend to grow broader and have more accentuated lateral spines than females.[19] Growth and molting are profoundly influenced by temperature and food availability. Higher temperatures and greater food resources decrease the period of time between molts as well as the change in size during molts (molt increment). Salinity and disease also have subtle impacts on molting and growth rate.[4] Molting occurs more rapidly in low salinity environments. The high osmotic pressure gradient causes water to quickly diffuse into a soft, recently molted blue crab's shell, allowing it to harden more quickly. The effects of diseases and parasites on growth and molting are less well understood, but in many cases have been observed to reduce growth between molts. For example, mature female blue crabs infected with the parasitic rhizocephalan barnacle Loxothylacus texanus appear extremely stunted in growth when compared to uninfected mature females.[19] Blue crab may reach maturity within one year of hatching in the Gulf of Mexico, while Chesapeake Bay crabs may take up to 18 months to mature.[20] As a result of different growth rates, commercial and recreational crabbing occur year-round in the Gulf of Mexico, while crabbing seasons are closed for colder parts of the year in northern states.

Mating and spawning are distinct events in blue crab reproduction. Males may mate several times and undergo no major changes in morphology during the process. Female blue crabs mate only once in their lifetimes during their pubertal, or terminal, molt. During this transition, the abdomen changes from a triangular to a semicircular shape. Mating in blue crab is a complex process that requires precise timing of mating at the time of the female's terminal molt. It generally occurs during the warmest months of the year. Prepubertal females migrate to the upper reaches of estuaries where males typically reside as adults. To ensure that a male can mate, he will actively seek a receptive female and guard her for up to 7 days until she molts, at which time insemination occurs. Crabs compete with other individuals before, during, and after insemination, so mate guarding is very important for reproductive success. After mating, a male must continue to guard the female until her shell has hardened.[19] Inseminated females retain spermatophores for up to one year, which they use for multiple spawnings in high salinity water.[21] During spawning, a female extrudes fertilized eggs onto her swimmerets and carries them in a large egg mass, or sponge, while they develop. Females migrate to the mouth of the estuary to release the larvae, the timing of which is believed to be influenced by light, tide, and lunar cycles. Blue crabs have high fecundity: females may produce up to 2 million eggs per brood.[19]

Migration and reproduction patterns differ between crab populations along the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. A distinct and large scale migration occurs in Chesapeake Bay, where C. sapidus undergoes a seasonal migration of up to several hundred miles. In the middle and upper parts of the bay, mating peaks in mid to late summer, while in the lower bay there are peaks in mating activity during spring and late summer through early fall. Changes in salinity and temperature may impact time of mating because both factors are important during the molting process.[19] After mating, the female crab travels to the southern portion of the Chesapeake, using ebb tides to migrate from areas of low salinity to areas of high salinity,[22] fertilizing her eggs with sperm stored during her single mating months or almost a year before.[23]

Spawning events in the Gulf of Mexico are less pronounced than in estuaries along the East Coast, like the Chesapeake. In northern waters of the Gulf of Mexico, spawning occurs in the spring, summer, and fall, and females generally spawn twice. During spawning, females migrate to high salinity waters to develop a sponge, and return inland after hatching their larvae. They develop their second sponge inland, and again migrate to the higher-salinity waters to hatch the second sponge. After this, they typically do not reenter the estuary. Blue crabs along the southernmost coast of Texas may spawn year-round.[20]

Cooked blue crabs, shown here on sale at a fish market in Washington, D.C., are red.

Commercial fisheries for C. sapidus exist along much of the Atlantic coast of the United States, and in the Gulf of Mexico. Although the fishery has been historically centered on the Chesapeake Bay, contributions from other localities are increasing in importance.[24] In the past two decades, the majority of commercial crabs have been landed in four states: Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Louisiana. Weight and value of harvests since 2000 are listed below.[25]

Fishery value in millions of dollars (and percentage of national harvest weight)[25]

As early as the 1600s, the blue crab was an important food item for Native Americans and European settlers in the Chesapeake Bay area. Soft and hard blue crabs were not as valuable as fish but gained regional popularity by the 1700s. Throughout their range crabs were also an effective bait type for hook and line fisheries. Rapid perishing limited the distribution and hindered the growth of the fishery. Advances in refrigeration techniques in the late 1800s and early 1900s increased demand for blue crab nationwide.[19]

The early blue crab fishery along the Atlantic coast was casual and productive because blue crabs were extremely abundant. In the lower Chesapeake Bay, crabs were even considered a nuisance species because they frequently clogged the nets of seine fishermen. Early on, the blue crab fishery of the Atlantic states was well documented. Atlantic states were the first to regulate the fishery, particularly the Chesapeake states. For example, after observing a slight decline in harvest, the fishing commissions of Virginia and Maryland put size limits into place by 1912 and 1917 respectively. Catch-per-unit-effort at the time was determined by packing houses, or crab processing plants.[19]

The early history of the recreational blue crab fishery in the Gulf of Mexico is not well known.[20] Commercial crabbing was first reported in the Gulf of Mexico in the 1880s. Early crab fishermen used long-handled dip nets and drop nets among other simple fishing gear types to trap crabs at night. Blue crab spoiled quickly, which limited distribution and hindered the growth of the fishery for several decades.[26] The first commercial processing plant in Louisiana opened in Morgan City in 1924. Other plants opened soon after, although commercial processing of hard blue crabs was not widespread until World War II.[20]

Louisiana now has the world's largest blue crab fishery. Commercial harvests in the state account for over half of all landings in the Gulf of Mexico.[20] The industry was not commercialized for interstate commerce until the 1990s, when supply markedly decreased in Maryland due to problems (see above) in Chesapeake Bay. Since then, Louisiana has steadily increased its harvest. In 2002, Louisiana harvested 22% of the nation's blue crab. That number rose to 26% by 2009 and 28% by 2012. The vast majority of Louisiana crabs are shipped to Maryland, where they are sold as "Chesapeake" or "Maryland" crab. Louisiana's harvest remained high in 2013, with 17,597 metric tons of blue crab valued at $51 million.[25] In addition to commercial harvesting, recreational crabbing is very popular along Louisiana's coast.[20]

The Chesapeake Bay has had the largest blue crab harvest for more than a century. Maryland and Virginia are usually the top two Atlantic coast states in annual landings, followed by North Carolina.[25] In 2013, crab landings were valued at $18.7 million from Maryland waters and $16.1 million from Virginia waters.[27] Although crab populations are currently declining, blue crab fishing in Maryland and Virginia remains a livelihood for thousands of coastal residents. As of 2001, Maryland and Virginia collectively had 4,816 commercial crab license holders.[28] Three separate licenses are required for each of the three major jurisdictional areas: Maryland, the Potomac River, and Virginia waters.[29] While the Bay’s commercial sector lands the majority of hard crab landings and nearly all peeler or soft crab landings, the recreational fishery is also significant.[29] In 2013, an estimated 3.9 million pounds of blue crab were harvested recreationally.[27]

Blue crab populations naturally fluctuate with annual changes in environmental conditions. They have been described as having a long-term dynamic equilibrium, which was first noted after irregular landings data in the Chesapeake in 1950.[30] This tendency may have made it difficult for managers to predict the severe decline of the Chesapeake’s blue crab populations. Once considered an overwhelmingly abundant annoyance, the declining blue crab population is now the subject of anxiety among fishermen and managers. Over the decade between the mid-1990s to 2004, the population fell from 900 million to around 300 million, and harvest weight fell from 52,000 tons (115,000,000 lbs) to 28,000 tons (62,000,000 lbs). Revenue fell further, from $72 million to $61 million. Long term estimates say that the overall Chesapeake population decreased approximately 70% in the last few decades. Even more alarming, the number of females capable of reproducing, known as spawning age females, has plummeted 84% in just a few decades. Survival and addition of juveniles to the harvestable crab population is also low.[31] Many factors are to blame for low blue crab numbers, including high fishing pressure, environmental degradation, and disease prevalence.[32]

Many types of gear have been used to catch blue crabs along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.[19] Initially people used very simple techniques and gear, which included hand lines, dip nets, and push nets among a variety of other gear types. The trotline, a long baited twine set in waters 5–15 feet deep, was the first major gear type used commercially to target hard crabs.[4] Use of commercial trotlines is now mostly limited to the tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. In the Gulf of Mexico, trotline use drastically declined after invention of the crab pot in 1938. Crab pots are rigid boxlike traps made of hexagonal or square wire mesh. They possess between two and four funnels that extend into the trap, with the smaller end of the funnel inside of the trap. A central compartment made of smaller wire mesh holds bait. Crabs attracted by odorant plumes from the bait, often an oily fish, enter the trap through the funnels and cannot escape.[19]

Species other than blue crab are often caught incidentally in crab pots, including fish, turtles, conch, and other crab species. In Georgia, hermit crabs (Pagurus spp.), channeled whelk (Busycon canaliculatum), spider crabs (Libinia spp.), and stone crabs (Menippe mercenaria) were the most common species observed as bycatch in commercial crab pots.[33] Of important concern is the diamondback terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin. The blue crab and diamondback terrapin have overlapping ranges along the East and Gulf coasts of the United States. Because the funnels in a crab pot are flexible, small terrapins may easily enter and become entrapped. Traps are checked every 24 hours or less, frequently resulting in drowning and death of terrapins. Crab pot bycatch may reduce local terrapin populations to less than half. To reduce terrapin entrapment, bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) may be installed on each of the funnels in a crab pot.[34] BRDs effectively reduce bycatch (and subsequently mortality) of small terrapins without affecting blue crab catch.[35]

Because of its commercial and environmental value, C. sapidus is the subject of management plans over much of its range.[11][36] In 2012, the C. sapidus population in Louisiana was recognized as a certified sustainable fishery by the Marine Stewardship Council.[37] It was the first and remains the only certified sustainable blue crab fishery worldwide.[38] For the state to maintain its certification, it must undergo annual monitoring and conduct a full re-evaluation five years after the certification date.[39]

^Roosenburg, Willem (2004). "The Impact of Crab Pot Fisheries on Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) Populations: Where Are We and Where Do We Need to Go?". Conservation and Ecology of Turtles of the Mid-Atlantic Region: A Symposium: 23–30.

1.
Taxonomy (biology)
–
Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate

2.
Animal
–
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia. The animal kingdom emerged as a clade within Apoikozoa as the group to the choanoflagellates. Animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently at some point in their lives and their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later in their lives. All animals are heterotrophs, they must ingest other organisms or their products for sustenance, most known animal phyla appeared in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion, about 542 million years ago. Animals can be divided broadly into vertebrates and invertebrates, vertebrates have a backbone or spine, and amount to less than five percent of all described animal species. They include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, the remaining animals are the invertebrates, which lack a backbone. These include molluscs, arthropods, annelids, nematodes, flatworms, cnidarians, ctenophores, the study of animals is called zoology. The word animal comes from the Latin animalis, meaning having breath, the biological definition of the word refers to all members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing creatures as diverse as sponges, jellyfish, insects, and humans. Aristotle divided the world between animals and plants, and this was followed by Carl Linnaeus, in the first hierarchical classification. In Linnaeuss original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, in 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into two subkingdoms, Metazoa and Protozoa. The protozoa were later moved to the kingdom Protista, leaving only the metazoa, thus Metazoa is now considered a synonym of Animalia. Animals have several characteristics that set apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular, which separates them from bacteria and they are heterotrophic, generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae. They are also distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls. All animals are motile, if only at life stages. In most animals, embryos pass through a stage, which is a characteristic exclusive to animals. With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges and Placozoa and these include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and nerve tissues, which send and process signals

3.
Arthropod
–
An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda, which includes the insects, arachnids, myriapods, arthropods are characterized by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chitin, often mineralised with calcium carbonate. The arthropod body plan consists of segments, each with a pair of appendages, the rigid cuticle inhibits growth, so arthropods replace it periodically by moulting. Their versatility has enabled them to become the most species-rich members of all guilds in most environments. They have over a million described species, making up more than 80% of all described living species, some of which. Arthropods range in size from the microscopic crustacean Stygotantulus up to the Japanese spider crab, arthropods primary internal cavity is a hemocoel, which accommodates their internal organs, and through which their haemolymph – analogue of blood – circulates, they have open circulatory systems. Like their exteriors, the organs of arthropods are generally built of repeated segments. Their nervous system is ladder-like, with paired ventral nerve cords running through all segments and their heads are formed by fusion of varying numbers of segments, and their brains are formed by fusion of the ganglia of these segments and encircle the esophagus. The respiratory and excretory systems of arthropods vary, depending as much on their environment as on the subphylum to which they belong, arthropods also have a wide range of chemical and mechanical sensors, mostly based on modifications of the many setae that project through their cuticles. Aquatic species use internal or external fertilization. Almost all arthropods lay eggs, but scorpions give birth to live young after the eggs have hatched inside the mother, arthropod hatchlings vary from miniature adults to grubs and caterpillars that lack jointed limbs and eventually undergo a total metamorphosis to produce the adult form. The level of care for hatchlings varies from nonexistent to the prolonged care provided by scorpions. The evolutionary ancestry of arthropods dates back to the Cambrian period, the group is generally regarded as monophyletic, and many analyses support the placement of arthropods with cycloneuralians in a superphylum Ecdysozoa. Overall however, the relationships of Metazoa are not yet well resolved. Likewise, the relationships between various groups are still actively debated. Arthropods contribute to the food supply both directly as food, and more importantly indirectly as pollinators of crops. Some species are known to spread disease to humans, livestock. The word arthropod comes from the Greek ἄρθρον árthron, joint, and πούς pous, i. e. foot or leg, arthropods are invertebrates with segmented bodies and jointed limbs

4.
Crustacean
–
Crustaceans form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, woodlice and barnacles. In other words, some crustaceans are more related to insects. The 67,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at 0.1 mm, to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span of up to 3.8 m, like other arthropods, crustaceans have an exoskeleton, which they moult to grow. Most crustaceans are free-living aquatic animals, but some are terrestrial, some are parasitic, the group has an extensive fossil record, reaching back to the Cambrian, and includes living fossils such as Triops cancriformis, which has existed apparently unchanged since the Triassic period. More than 10 million tons of crustaceans are produced by fishery or farming for human consumption, krill and copepods are not as widely fished, but may be the animals with the greatest biomass on the planet, and form a vital part of the food chain. The scientific study of crustaceans is known as carcinology, and a scientist who works in carcinology is a carcinologist, the body of a crustacean is composed of segments, which are grouped into three regions, the cephalon or head, the thorax, and the pleon or abdomen. The head and thorax may be fused together to form a cephalothorax, the crustacean body is protected by the hard exoskeleton, which must be moulted for the animal to grow. The shell around each somite can be divided into a dorsal tergum, ventral sternum, various parts of the exoskeleton may be fused together. The abdomen bears pleopods, and ends in a telson, which bears the anus, the number and variety of appendages in different crustaceans may be partly responsible for the groups success. It is unclear whether the condition is a derived state which evolved in crustaceans. Trilobites, for instance, also possessed biramous appendages, the main body cavity is an open circulatory system, where blood is pumped into the haemocoel by a heart located near the dorsum. Malacostraca have haemocyanin as the pigment, while copepods, ostracods, barnacles. The alimentary canal consists of a tube that often has a gizzard-like gastric mill for grinding food and a pair of digestive glands that absorb food. Structures that function as kidneys are located near the antennae, a brain exists in the form of ganglia close to the antennae, and a collection of major ganglia is found below the gut. In many decapods, the first pair of pleopods are specialised in the male for sperm transfer, many terrestrial crustaceans mate seasonally and return to the sea to release the eggs. Others, such as woodlice, lay their eggs on land, in most decapods, the females retain the eggs until they hatch into free-swimming larvae. Marine crustaceans are as ubiquitous in the oceans as insects are on land, some branchiurans are able to withstand rapid changes of salinity and will also switch hosts from marine to non-marine species. Krill are the layer and the most important part of the food chain in Antarctic animal communities

5.
Malacostraca
–
Malacostraca is the largest of the six classes of crustaceans, containing about 40,000 living species, divided among 16 orders. They are abundant in all environments and have colonised freshwater. They are segmented animals, united by a body plan comprising 20 body segments, and divided into a head, thorax. The name Malacostraca was coined by a French zoologist Pierre André Latreille in 1802 and he was curator of the arthropod collection at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. The name comes from the Greek roots μαλακός and ὄστρακον, the name is misleading, since the shell is only soft immediately after moulting, and is usually hard. Malacostracans are sometimes contrasted with entomostracans, a name applied to all crustaceans outside the Malacostraca, the class Malacostraca includes about 40,000 species, and arguably. Contains a greater diversity of forms than any other class in the animal kingdom. Malacostracans have abdominal appendages, a fact that differentiates them from all other major crustacean taxa except Remipedia, each body segment bears a pair of jointed appendages, although these may be lost secondarily. The head bears two pairs of antennae, the first of which is often biramous and the second pair bear exopods which are flattened into antennal scales known as scaphocerites. The mouthparts consist of each of mandibles, maxillules and maxillae. Usually a pair of stalked compound eyes is present, although in some taxa the eyes are unstalked, reduced or lost, up to three thoracic segments may be fused with the head to form a cephalothorax, the associated appendages turn forward and are modified as maxillipeds. A carapace may be absent, present or secondarily lost, and may cover the head, part or all of the thorax and it is variable in form and may be fused dorsally with some of the thoracic segments or occasionally be in two parts, hinged dorsally. Typically, each of the thoracic appendages is biramous and the endopods are the developed of the branches. Each endopod consist of seven articulating segments, the coxa, basis, ischium, in decapods, the claw is formed by the articulation of the dactylus against an outgrowth of the propodus. In some taxa, the exopods are lost and the appendages are uniramous, there is a clear demarcation between the thorax and the six or seven-segmented abdomen. In most taxa, each abdominal segment except the last carries a pair of biramous pleopods used for swimming, burrowing, gas exchange, the first and second abdominal pleopods may be modified in the male to form gonopods. The appendages of the last segment are typically flattened into uropods and it is the sudden flexion of this tail fan that provides the thrust for the rapid escape response of these crustaceans and the tail fan is also used in steering. In Leptostraca, the appendages on the telson instead form caudal rami, the digestive tract is straight and the foregut consists of a short oesophagus and a two-chambered stomach, the first part of which contains a gizzard-like gastric mill for grinding food

6.
Decapoda
–
The Decapoda or decapods are an order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, including many familiar groups, such as crayfish, crabs, lobsters, prawns, and shrimp. The order is estimated to contain nearly 15,000 species in around 2,700 genera, nearly half of these species are crabs, with the shrimp and Anomura (including hermit crabs, porcelain crabs, squat lobsters making up the bulk of the remainder. The earliest fossil decapod is the Devonian Palaeopalaemon, as the name Decapoda implies, all decapods have what are considered ten legs, in the form of five pairs of thoracic appendages on the last five thoracic segments. Decapods can have as many as twenty apendages, arranged in one pair per body segment, the front three pairs function as mouthparts and are generally referred to as maxillipeds, the remainder are pereiopods. In many decapods, however, one pair of legs has enlarged pincers, the remaining appendages are found on the abdomen, with each segment capable of carrying a pair of biramous pleopods, the last of which form part of the tail fan and are called uropods. Classification within the order Decapoda depends on the structure of the gills and legs, the Dendrobranchiata consist of prawns, including many species colloquially referred to as shrimp, such as the white shrimp, Litopenaeus setiferus. The Pleocyemata include the groups, including true shrimp. Those groups which usually walk rather than form a clade called Reptantia. This classification to the level of superfamilies follows De Grave et al

7.
Crab
–
Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting tail, usually entirely hidden under the thorax. They live in all the oceans, in fresh water. Many other animals with similar names – such as crabs, king crabs, porcelain crabs, horseshoe crabs. Crabs are generally covered with an exoskeleton, composed primarily of calcium carbonate. Crabs are found in all of the oceans, while many crabs live in fresh water and on land. Crabs vary in size from the pea crab, a few wide, to the Japanese spider crab. About 850 species of crab are freshwater, terrestrial or semi-terrestrial species and they were previously thought to be a monophyletic group, but are now believed to represent at least two distinct lineages, one in the Old World and one in the New World. The earliest unambiguous crab fossils date from the Jurassic, although Carboniferous Imocaris, known only from its carapace, the radiation of crabs in the Cretaceous and afterward may be linked either to the break-up of Gondwana or to the concurrent radiation of bony fish, crabs main predators. Crabs often show marked sexual dimorphism, males often have larger claws, a tendency which is particularly pronounced in the fiddler crabs of the genus Uca. In fiddler crabs, males have one claw which is greatly enlarged, another conspicuous difference is the form of the pleon, in most male crabs, this is narrow and triangular in form, while females have a broader, rounded abdomen. This is because female crabs brood fertilised eggs on their pleopods, crabs attract a mate through chemical, visual, acoustic, or vibratory means. Pheromones are used by most fully aquatic crabs, while terrestrial and semiterrestrial crabs often use visual signals, the vast number of brachyuran crabs have internal fertilisation and mate belly-to-belly. For many aquatic species, mating takes place just after the female has moulted and is still soft, females can store the sperm for a long time before using it to fertilise their eggs. When fertilisation has taken place, the eggs are released onto the abdomen, below the tail flap. In this location, they are protected during embryonic development, females carrying eggs are called berried since the eggs resemble round berries. When development is complete, the releases the newly hatched larvae into the water. The release is timed with the tides. The free-swimming tiny zoea larvae can float and take advantage of water currents and they have a spine, which probably reduces the rate of predation by larger animals

8.
Portunidae
–
Portunidae is a family of crabs which contains the swimming crabs. Portunid crabs are characterised by the flattening of the pair of legs into broad paddles. This ability, together with their strong, sharp claws, allows many species to be fast and its members include many well-known shoreline crabs, such as the European shore crab, blue crab, velvet crab and lady crab. Two genera in the family are contrastingly named Scylla and Charybdis, the circumscription of the family varies, with some authors treating Carcinidae, Catoptridae and Macropipidae as separate families, and others considering them subfamilies of a wider Portunidae. Swimming crabs reach their greatest species diversity in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, extinct genera are marked with an obelisk. Media related to Portunidae at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Portunidae at Wikispecies

9.
Binomial nomenclature
–
Such a name is called a binomial name, a binomen, binominal name or a scientific name, more informally it is also called a Latin name. The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs, for example, humans belong to the genus Homo and within this genus to the species Homo sapiens. The formal introduction of system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1623, had introduced in his book Pinax theatri botanici many names of genera that were adopted by Linnaeus. Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are differences, both in the terminology they use and in their precise rules. Similarly, both parts are italicized when a binomial name occurs in normal text, thus the binomial name of the annual phlox is now written as Phlox drummondii. In scientific works, the authority for a name is usually given, at least when it is first mentioned. In zoology Patella vulgata Linnaeus,1758, the original name given by Linnaeus was Fringilla domestica, the parentheses indicate that the species is now considered to belong in a different genus. The ICZN does not require that the name of the person who changed the genus be given, nor the date on which the change was made, in botany Amaranthus retroflexus L. – L. is the standard abbreviation used in botany for Linnaeus. – Linnaeus first named this bluebell species Scilla italica, Rothmaler transferred it to the genus Hyacinthoides, the ICN does not require that the dates of either publication be specified. Prior to the adoption of the binomial system of naming species. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature and these names had two separate functions. First, to designate or label the species, and second, to be a diagnosis or description, such polynomial names may sometimes look like binomials, but are significantly different. For example, Gerards herbal describes various kinds of spiderwort, The first is called Phalangium ramosum, Branched Spiderwort, is aptly termed Phalangium Ephemerum Virginianum, Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia. The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels, the Bauhins, in particular Caspar Bauhin, took some important steps towards the binomial system, by pruning the Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words. The adoption by biologists of a system of binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physician Carl von Linné. It was in his 1753 Species Plantarum that he first began using a one-word trivial name together with a generic name in a system of binomial nomenclature. This trivial name is what is now known as an epithet or specific name

10.
Mary J. Rathbun
–
Mary Jane Rathbun was an American zoologist who specialized in crustaceans. She worked at the Smithsonian Institution, often unaided, from 1884 until her death and she described more than a thousand new species and subspecies and many higher taxa. Mary Jane Rathbun was born on June 11,1860, in Buffalo, New York and her mother died when she was only one year old, and Mary was therefore thrown on her own resources. She was schooled in Buffalo, graduating in 1878, but never attended college, although no more than 4 ft 6 in tall, Mary Rathbun had strong features, and possessed a dry sense of humor. Rathbun first saw the ocean in 1881 when she accompanied her brother, Richard Rathbun, to Woods Hole and he was employed as a scientific assistant to Addison Emery Verrill, alongside Verrills chief assistant, the carcinologist Sidney Irving Smith. Rathbun helped label, sort and record Smiths specimens, and worked on ever since. For three years, Rathbun worked on a basis for her brother, before being granted a clerkship by Spencer Fullerton Baird at the Smithsonian Institution. She continued to work at the museum, largely unaided, and after 28 years, in 1915, after her retirement, the Smithsonian Institution designated Rathbun an Honorary Research Associate, and in 1916 she was granted an honorary masters degree by the University of Pittsburgh. She qualified for a Ph. D. at George Washington University in 1917 and she died in Washington, D. C. on April 14,1943, at the age of 82, from complications associated with a broken hip. Rathbuns first publication was co-written with James Everard Benedict and concerned the genus Panopeus and she retired on the last day of 1914, but did not stop working until her death. Her largest work was Les crabes deau douce, originally intended as a single publication, the taxa first described by Rathbun include important commercial species such as the Atlantic blue crab Callinectes sapidus, and the tanner crab, Chionoecetes bairdi. A number of taxa have been named in honor of Mary J. Rathbun, Mary Jane Rathbun Papers, 1886-1938 and undated from the Smithsonian Institution Archives Fenner A. Chace, a Brief History of the Invertebrate Zoology Department. Media related to Mary Jane Rathbun at Wikimedia Commons

11.
Synonym (taxonomy)
–
For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies. This name is no longer in use, it is now a synonym of the current scientific name which is Picea abies, unlike synonyms in other contexts, in taxonomy a synonym is not interchangeable with the name of which it is a synonym. In taxonomy, synonyms are not equals, but have a different status, for any taxon with a particular circumscription, position, and rank, only one scientific name is considered to be the correct one at any given time. A synonym cannot exist in isolation, it is always an alternative to a different scientific name, given that the correct name of a taxon depends on the taxonomic viewpoint used a name that is one taxonomists synonym may be another taxonomists correct name. Synonyms may arise whenever the same taxon is described and named more than once, independently. They may also arise when existing taxa are changed, as when two taxa are joined to one, a species is moved to a different genus. To the general user of scientific names, in such as agriculture, horticulture, ecology, general science. A synonym is a name that was used as the correct scientific name but which has been displaced by another scientific name. Thus Oxford Dictionaries Online defines the term as a name which has the same application as another. In handbooks and general texts, it is useful to have mentioned as such after the current scientific name. Synonyms used in this way may not always meet the strict definitions of the synonym in the formal rules of nomenclature which govern scientific names. Changes of scientific name have two causes, they may be taxonomic or nomenclatural, a name change may be caused by changes in the circumscription, position or rank of a taxon, representing a change in taxonomic, scientific insight. A name change may be due to purely nomenclatural reasons, that is, based on the rules of nomenclature, the earliest such name is called the senior synonym, while the later name is the junior synonym. One basic principle of zoological nomenclature is that the earliest correctly published name, synonyms are important because if the earliest name cannot be used, then the next available junior synonym must be used for the taxon. Objective synonyms refer to taxa with the type and same rank. For example, John Edward Gray published the name Antilocapra anteflexa in 1855 for a species of pronghorn, however, it is now commonly accepted that his specimen was an unusual individual of the species Antilocapra americana published by George Ord in 1815. Ords name thus takes precedence, with Antilocapra anteflexa being a subjective synonym. Objective synonyms are common at the level of genera, because for various reasons two genera may contain the type species, these are objective synonyms

12.
Core Banks
–
The Core Banks are barrier islands in North Carolina, part of the Outer Banks and Cape Lookout National Seashore. New Drum Inlet, Old Drum Inlet and Ophelia Inlet now separate the islands, the Core Banks are now uninhabited. S. Coast Guard Station, and several island homes, islands can be reached by two vehicle ferries. One ferry crosses Core Sound from Atlantic to North Core Banks, there are no roads on the islands, vehicles use the beach and four wheel drive tracks. Passenger ferries also take tourists from Harkers Island to the Cape Lookout area at the end of South Core Banks. Portsmouth Island, on which Portsmouth Village stands, is an island accessible from North Core Banks at most states of the tide. The Cape Lookout Coast Guard Station, Cape Lookout Light Station, the geography of the Core Banks has changed since the mid 19th century. At that time South Core Banks was connected to the Shackleford Banks, over the years inlets have closed and opened in the barrier islands. From northeast to southwest, the islands are located in the Townships of Portsmouth, Atlantic, Sea Level, Stacy, Davis, Smyrna, and Harkers Island, all in Carteret County

13.
North Carolina
–
North Carolina is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west, Virginia to the north, North Carolina is the 28th most extensive and the 9th most populous of the U. S. states. The state is divided into 100 counties, the most populous municipality is Charlotte, which is the second largest banking center in the United States after New York City. The state has a range of elevations, from sea level on the coast to 6,684 feet at Mount Mitchell. The climate of the plains is strongly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the falls in the humid subtropical climate zone. More than 300 miles from the coast, the western, mountainous part of the state has a highland climate. North Carolina is bordered by South Carolina on the south, Georgia on the southwest, Tennessee on the west, Virginia on the north, the United States Census Bureau places North Carolina in the South Atlantic division of the southern region. So many ships have been lost off Cape Hatteras that the area is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, the most famous of these is the Queen Annes Revenge, which went aground in Beaufort Inlet in 1718. The coastal plain transitions to the Piedmont region along the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, the Piedmont region of central North Carolina is the states most populous region, containing the six largest cities in the state by population. It consists of rolling countryside frequently broken by hills or low mountain ridges. The Piedmont ranges from about 300 feet in elevation in the east to about 1,500 feet in the west, the western section of the state is part of the Appalachian Mountain range. Among the subranges of the Appalachians located in the state are the Great Smoky Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountains, the Black Mountains are the highest in the eastern United States, and culminate in Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet, the highest point east of the Mississippi River. North Carolina has 17 major river basins, the five basins west of the Blue Ridge Mountains flow to the Gulf of Mexico, while the remainder flow to the Atlantic Ocean. Of the 17 basins,11 originate within the state of North Carolina, but only four are contained entirely within the states border – the Cape Fear, the Neuse, the White Oak, and the Tar-Pamlico basin. Elevation above sea level is most responsible for temperature change across the state, the climate is also influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream, especially in the coastal plain. These influences tend to cause warmer winter temperatures along the coast, the coastal plain averages around 1 inch of snow or ice annually, and in many years, there may be no snow or ice at all. North Carolina experiences severe weather in summer and winter, with summer bringing threat of hurricanes, tropical storms, heavy rain

14.
Greek language
–
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population

15.
Latin
–
Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole

16.
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other

17.
Gulf of Mexico
–
The Gulf of Mexico is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. The U. S. states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas border the Gulf on the north, Atlantic and Pacific coasts, or sometimes the south coast, in juxtaposition to the Great Lakes region being the north coast. One of the seven main areas is the Gulf of Mexico basin. The Gulf of Mexico formed approximately 300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics, the Gulfs basin is roughly oval and is approximately 810 nautical miles wide and floored by sedimentary rocks and recent sediments. It is connected to part of the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Straits between the U. S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea via the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba, with the narrow connection to the Atlantic, the Gulf experiences very small tidal ranges. The size of the Gulf basin is approximately 1.6 million km2, almost half of the basin is shallow continental shelf waters. The basin contains a volume of roughly 2,500 quadrillion liters, the consensus among geologists who have studied the geology of the Gulf of Mexico, is that prior to the Late Triassic, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist. It was created by the collision of plates that formed Pangea. As interpreted by Roy Van Arsdale and Randel T. Cox, geologists and other Earth scientists agree in general that the present Gulf of Mexico basin originated in Late Triassic time as the result of rifting within Pangea. The rifting was associated with zones of weakness within Pangea, including sutures where the Laurentia, South American, first, there was a Late Triassic-Early Jurassic phase of rifting during which rift valleys formed and filled with continental red beds. Second, as rifting progressed through Early and Middle Jurassic time and it was at this time that tectonics first created a connection to the Pacific Ocean across central Mexico and later eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. This flooded the basin created by rifting and crustal thinning to create the Gulf of Mexico. While the Gulf of Mexico was a basin, the subsiding transitional crust was blanketed by the widespread deposition of Louann Salt. Initially, during the Late Jurassic, continued rifting widened the Gulf of Mexico and progressed to the point that sea-floor spreading, at this point, sufficient circulation with the Atlantic Ocean was established that the deposition of Louann Salt ceased. During the Late Jurassic through Early Cretaceous, the occupied by the Gulf of Mexico experienced a period of cooling. The subsidence was the result of a combination of stretching, cooling. Initially, the combination of stretching and cooling caused about 5–7 km of tectonic subsidence of the central thin transitional

18.
Louisiana
–
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States and its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the state in the U. S. with political subdivisions termed parishes. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana is bordered by Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, Texas to the west, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Much of the lands were formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh. These contain a rich southern biota, typical examples include birds such as ibis, there are also many species of tree frogs, and fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a process in the landscape. These support a large number of plant species, including many species of orchids. Louisiana has more Native American tribes than any other state, including four that are federally recognized, ten that are state recognized. Before the American purchase of the territory in 1803, the current Louisiana State had been both a French colony and for a period, a Spanish one. In addition, colonists imported numerous African people as slaves in the 18th century, many came from peoples of the same region of West Africa, thus concentrating their culture. Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, King of France from 1643 to 1715, when René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane. The suffix -ana is a Latin suffix that can refer to information relating to an individual, subject. Thus, roughly, Louis + ana carries the idea of related to Louis, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist 250 million years ago when there was but one supercontinent, Pangea. As Pangea split apart, the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico opened, Louisiana slowly developed, over millions of years, from water into land, and from north to south. The oldest rocks are exposed in the north, in such as the Kisatchie National Forest. The oldest rocks date back to the early Tertiary Era, some 60 million years ago, the history of the formation of these rocks can be found in D. Spearings Roadside Geology of Louisiana. The sediments were carried north to south by the Mississippi River

19.
Chesapeake Bay
–
It is the largest estuary in North America. With its northern portion in Maryland and the part in Virginia. More than 150 major rivers and streams flow into the bays 64, 299-square-mile drainage basin, the bay is approximately 200 miles long from its northern headwaters in the Susquehanna River to its outlet in the Atlantic Ocean. It is 2.8 miles wide at its narrowest and 30 miles at its widest, total shoreline including tributaries is 11,684 miles, circumnavigating a surface area of 4,479 square miles. Average depth is 21 feet, reaching a maximum of 174 feet, the bay is spanned twice, in Maryland by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge from Sandy Point to Kent Island and in Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel connecting Virginia Beach to Cape Charles. Known for both its beauty and bounty, the bay became emptier, with crabs, oysters. Recent restoration efforts begun in the 1990s have been ongoing and show potential for growth of the oyster population. The health of the Chesapeake Bay improved in 2015, marking three years of gains over the past four years, according to a new report by the University of Maryland, the word Chesepiooc is an Algonquian word referring to a village at a big river. It is the seventh oldest surviving English place-name in the U. S. first applied as Chesepiook by explorers heading north from the Roanoke Colony into a Chesapeake tributary in 1585 or 1586. The name may refer to the Chesepian or Chesapeake people. They occupied an area which is now the Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, in 2005, Algonquian linguist Blair Rudes helped to dispel one of the areas most widely held beliefs, that Chesapeake means something like great shellfish bay. The name might actually have meant something like great water, or it might have just referred to a location at the bays mouth. In addition, the name is almost always prefixed by the in usage by local residents, The Chesapeake, The Chesapeake Bay, the Chesapeake Bay is an estuary to the North Atlantic, lying between the Delmarva Peninsula to the east and the North American mainland to the west. It is the ria, or drowned valley, of the Susquehanna River and it is not a fjord, because the Laurentide Ice Sheet never reached as far south as the northernmost point on the bay. The large rivers entering the bay from the west have broad mouths and are extensions of the ria for miles up the course of each river. The bay was formed starting about 10,000 years ago when rising sea levels at the end of the last ice age flooded the Susquehanna River valley. Parts of the bay, especially the Calvert County, Maryland and these cliffs, generally known as Calvert Cliffs, are famous for their fossils, especially fossilized shark teeth which are commonly found washed up on the beaches next to the cliffs. Scientists Cliffs is a community in Calvert County named for the desire to create a retreat for scientists when the community was founded in 1935

20.
New Jersey
–
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania, New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state but the 11th-most populous and the most densely populated of the 50 United States. New Jersey lies entirely within the statistical areas of New York City. New Jersey was inhabited by Native Americans for more than 2,800 years, in the early 17th century, the Dutch and the Swedes made the first European settlements. New Jersey was the site of decisive battles during the American Revolutionary War in the 18th century. In the 19th century, factories in cities such as Camden, Paterson, Newark, Trenton, around 180 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period, New Jersey bordered North Africa. The pressure of the collision between North America and Africa gave rise to the Appalachian Mountains, around 18,000 years ago, the Ice Age resulted in glaciers that reached New Jersey. As the glaciers retreated, they left behind Lake Passaic, as well as rivers, swamps. New Jersey was originally settled by Native Americans, with the Lenni-Lenape being dominant at the time of contact, scheyichbi is the Lenape name for the land that is now New Jersey. The Lenape society was divided into clans that were based upon common female ancestors. These clans were organized into three distinct phratries identified by their animal sign, Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf and they first encountered the Dutch in the early 17th century, and their primary relationship with the Europeans was through fur trade. The Dutch became the first Europeans to lay claim to lands in New Jersey, the Dutch colony of New Netherland consisted of parts of modern Middle Atlantic states. Although the European principle of ownership was not recognized by the Lenape. The first to do so was Michiel Pauw who established a patronship called Pavonia in 1630 along the North River which eventually became the Bergen, peter Minuits purchase of lands along the Delaware River established the colony of New Sweden. During the English Civil War, the Channel Island of Jersey remained loyal to the British Crown and it was from the Royal Square in St. Helier that Charles II of England was proclaimed King in 1649, following the execution of his father, Charles I. The North American lands were divided by Charles II, who gave his brother, the Duke of York, the region between New England and Maryland as a proprietary colony. James then granted the land between the Hudson River and the Delaware River to two friends who had remained loyal through the English Civil War, Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley of Stratton, the area was named the Province of New Jersey. Since the states inception, New Jersey has been characterized by ethnic, New England Congregationalists settled alongside Scots Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed migrants

21.
Maryland
–
The states largest city is Baltimore, and its capital is Annapolis. Among its occasional nicknames are Old Line State, the Free State, the state is named after Henrietta Maria of France, the wife of Charles I of England. George Calvert was the first Lord of Baltimore and the first English proprietor of the colonial grant. Maryland was the state to ratify the United States Constitution. Maryland is one of the smallest U. S. states in terms of area, as well as one of the most densely populated, Maryland has an area of 12,406.68 square miles and is comparable in overall area with Belgium. It is the 42nd largest and 9th smallest state and is closest in size to the state of Hawaii, the next largest state, its neighbor West Virginia, is almost twice the size of Maryland. Maryland possesses a variety of topography within its borders, contributing to its nickname America in Miniature. The mid-portion of this border is interrupted by Washington, D. C. which sits on land that was part of Montgomery and Prince Georges counties and including the town of Georgetown. This land was ceded to the United States Federal Government in 1790 to form the District of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay nearly bisects the state and the counties east of the bay are known collectively as the Eastern Shore. Close to the town of Hancock, in western Maryland, about two-thirds of the way across the state. This geographical curiosity makes Maryland the narrowest state, bordered by the Mason–Dixon line to the north, portions of Maryland are included in various official and unofficial geographic regions. Much of the Baltimore–Washington corridor lies just south of the Piedmont in the Coastal Plain, earthquakes in Maryland are infrequent and small due to the states distance from seismic/earthquake zones. The M5.8 Virginia earthquake in 2011 was felt moderately throughout Maryland, buildings in the state are not well-designed for earthquakes and can suffer damage easily. The lack of any glacial history accounts for the scarcity of Marylands natural lakes, laurel Oxbow Lake is an over one-hundred-year-old 55-acre natural lake two miles north of Maryland City and adjacent to Russett. Chews Lake is a natural lake two miles south-southeast of Upper Marlboro. There are numerous lakes, the largest of them being the Deep Creek Lake. Maryland has shale formations containing natural gas, where fracking is theoretically possible, as is typical of states on the East Coast, Marylands plant life is abundant and healthy. Middle Atlantic coastal forests, typical of the southeastern Atlantic coastal plain, grow around Chesapeake Bay, moving west, a mixture of Northeastern coastal forests and Southeastern mixed forests cover the central part of the state

22.
List of U.S. state crustaceans
–
As of May 2012, three U. S. states have designated state crustaceans, Louisiana has the freshwater crayfish Procambarus clarkii. Maryland has the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, in 1983, the state of Louisiana designated the Louisiana crawfish, Procambarus clarkii, as their state crustacean. The native range of P. clarkii is along the Gulf Coast from northern Mexico to the Florida panhandle, as well as inland, to southern Illinois and Ohio. It is most commonly found in fresh water, such as slowly flowing rivers, marshes, reservoirs, irrigation systems. P. clarkii grows quickly, and is capable of reaching weights over 50 grams, harvests of P. clarkii account for a large majority of the crayfish produced in the United States and elsewhere. Louisiana produces 90% of the crawfish in the world and consumes 70% of it locally, Louisiana crawfish are usually boiled in a large pot with heavy seasoning and other items such as potatoes, corn on the cob, onions, garlic, and sausage. There are many differing methods used to season a crawfish boil, the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus was chosen as the state crustacean of Maryland in 1989. C. sapidus is a found in the waters of the western Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific coast of Central America. The blue crab may grow to a width of 230 mm. It can be distinguished from a species that occurs in the same area by the number of frontal teeth on the carapace, C. sapidus has four. The Chesapeake Bay, located in Maryland and Virginia, is famous for its blue crabs, in 1993, the combined harvest of the blue crabs was valued at around US$100 million. Over the years the population of the crab has dropped. The Dungeness crab, Metacarcinus magister, is a species of crab that inhabits eelgrass beds and its common name comes from the port of Dungeness, Washington. The carapace width of mature Dungeness crabs may reach 25 cm in some areas off the coast of Washington and they are a popular delicacy, and are the most commercially important crab in the Pacific Northwest, as well as the western states generally. The annual Dungeness Crab and Seafood Festival is held in Port Angeles, Washington each October

23.
United States Capitol
–
The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol Building or Capitol Hill, is the home of the United States Congress, and the seat of the legislative branch of the U. S. federal government. It sits atop Capitol Hill at the end of the National Mall in Washington. Though not at the center of the Federal District, the Capitol forms the origin point for the Districts street-numbering system. The original building was completed in 1800 and was subsequently expanded, like the principal buildings of the executive and judicial branches, the Capitol is built in a distinctive neoclassical style and has a white exterior. Both its east and west elevations are referred to as fronts, though only the east front was intended for the reception of visitors. In 2014, scaffolding was erected around the dome for a project scheduled to be completed by early 2017. All exterior scaffolding was removed by the end of summer 2016, prior to establishing the nations capital in Washington, D. C. the United States Congress and its predecessors had met in Philadelphia, New York City, and a number of other locations. In September 1774, the First Continental Congress brought together delegates from the colonies in Philadelphia, followed by the Second Continental Congress, Congress requested that John Dickinson, the Governor of Pennsylvania, call up the militia to defend Congress from attacks by the protesters. In what became known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, Dickinson sympathized with the protesters and refused to remove them from Philadelphia. As a result, Congress was forced to flee to Princeton, New Jersey, on June 21,1783, and met in Annapolis, Maryland, the United States Congress was established upon ratification of the United States Constitution and formally began on March 4,1789. New York City remained home to Congress until July 1790, when the Residence Act was passed to pave the way for a permanent capital. As part of the legislation, Philadelphia was chosen as a capital for ten years, until the nations capital in Washington. Pierre Charles LEnfant was given the task of creating the city plan for the new capital city, in reviewing LEnfants plan, Thomas Jefferson insisted the legislative building be called the Capitol rather than Congress House. The word Capitol comes from Latin and is associated with the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Capitoline Hill, the connection between the two is not, however, crystal clear. In spring 1792, United States Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson proposed a competition to solicit designs for the Capitol and the Presidents House. The prize for the competition was $500 and a lot in the Federal City, the most promising of the submissions was by Stephen Hallet, a trained French architect. However, Hallets designs were overly fancy, with too much French influence, a late entry by amateur architect William Thornton was submitted on January 31,1793, to much praise for its Grandeur, Simplicity, and Beauty by Washington, along with praise from Thomas Jefferson. Thornton was inspired by the east front of the Louvre, as well as the Paris Pantheon for the portion of the design

24.
Washington Monument
–
It is the tallest monumental column in the world if all are measured above their pedestrian entrances. Although the stone structure was completed in 1884, internal ironwork, the knoll, a difference in shading of the marble, visible approximately 150 feet or 27% up, shows where construction was halted and later resumed with marble from a different source. The original design was by Robert Mills, but he did not include his proposed colonnade due to a lack of funds, despite many proposals to embellish the obelisk, only its original flat top was altered to a pointed marble pyramidion, in 1884. Upon completion, it became the worlds tallest structure, a previously held by the Cologne Cathedral. The monument held this designation until 1889, when the Eiffel Tower was completed in Paris, the monument was damaged during the 2011 Virginia earthquake and Hurricane Irene in the same year and remained closed to the public while the structure was assessed and repaired. After 32 months of repairs, the National Park Service and the Trust for the National Mall reopened the Washington Monument to visitors on May 12,2014, as of September 2016, the monument has been closed indefinitely due to reliability issues with the current elevator system. On December 2,2016, the National Park Service announced that the monument would be closed until 2019 in order to modernize the elevator. The $2 to 3 million project will correct the elevators ongoing mechanical, electrical and computer issues, the National Park Service has also requested funding in its FY2017 Presidents Budget Request to construct a permanent screening facility for the Washington Monument. The Washington Monument is expected to re-open to visitors in 2019, even his erstwhile enemy King George III called him the greatest character of the age. At his death in 1799 he left a legacy, he exemplified the core ideals of the American Revolution. Washington was the unchallenged public icon of American military and civic patriotism, starting with victory in the Revolution, there were many proposals to build a monument to Washington. After his death, Congress authorized a memorial in the national capital. The Republicans were dismayed that Washington had become the symbol of the Federalist Party and they also blocked his image on coins or the celebration of his birthday. Further political squabbling, along with the North-South division on the Civil War, by that time, Washington had the image of a national hero who could be celebrated by both North and South, and memorials to him were no longer controversial. As early as 1783, the Continental Congress had resolved That an equestrian statue of George Washington be erected at the place where the residence of Congress shall be established, currently, there are two equestrian statues of President Washington in Washington, D. C. Ten days after Washingtons death, a Congressional committee recommended a different type of monument, John Marshall, a Representative from Virginia proposed that a tomb be erected within the Capitol. Progress toward a memorial began in 1832. That year, which marked the 100th anniversary of Washingtons birth, in 1836, after they had raised $28,000 in donations, they announced a competition for the design of the memorial

25.
Carapace
–
A carapace is a dorsal section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the underside is called the plastron, in crustaceans, the carapace functions as a protective cover over the cephalothorax. Where it projects forward beyond the eyes, this projection is called a rostrum, the carapace is calcified to varying degrees in different crustaceans. Zooplankton within the phylum Crustacea also have a carapace and these include Cladocera, ostracods, and isopods, but isopods only have a developed cephalic shield carapace covering the head. In arachnids, the carapace is formed by the fusion of prosomal tergites into a plate which carries the eyes, ocularium, ozopores. In a few orders, such as Solifugae and Schizomida, the carapace may be subdivided, alternative terms for the carapace of arachnids and their relatives, which avoids confusion with crustaceans, are prosomal dorsal shield and peltidium. The carapace is the convex part of the shell structure of a turtle, consisting primarily of the animals rib cage, dermal armor

26.
Mnemonic
–
A mnemonic device, or memory device is any learning technique that aids information retention in the human memory. Mnemonics make use of encoding, retrieval cues, and imagery as specific tools to encode any given information in a way that allows for efficient storage. Mnemonics aid original information in becoming associated with something more meaningful—which, in turn, the word mnemonic is derived from the Ancient Greek word μνημονικός, meaning of memory, or relating to memory and is related to Mnemosyne, the name of the goddess of memory in Greek mythology. Both of these words are derived from μνήμη, remembrance, memory, mnemonics in antiquity were most often considered in the context of what is today known as the art of memory. Ancient Greeks and Romans distinguished between two types of memory, the memory and the artificial memory. The former is inborn, and is the one that everyone uses instinctively, the latter in contrast has to be trained and developed through the learning and practice of a variety of mnemonic techniques. Mnemonic systems are techniques or strategies consciously used to improve memory and they help use information already stored in long-term memory to make memorisation an easier task. Mnemonic devices were much cultivated by Greek sophists and philosophers and are referred to by Plato. In later times the poet Simonides was credited for development of these techniques, the Romans valued such helps in order to support facility in public speaking. The Greek and the Roman system of mnemonics was founded on the use of mental places and signs or pictures, to recall these, an individual had only to search over the apartments of the house until discovering the places where images had been placed by the imagination. Except that the rules of mnemonics are referred to by Martianus Capella, among the voluminous writings of Roger Bacon is a tractate De arte memorativa. Ramon Llull devoted special attention to mnemonics in connection with his ars generalis, about the end of the 15th century, Petrus de Ravenna provoked such astonishment in Italy by his mnemonic feats that he was believed by many to be a necromancer. His Phoenix artis memoriae went through as many as nine editions, about the end of the 16th century, Lambert Schenkel, who taught mnemonics in France, Italy and Germany, similarly surprised people with his memory. He was denounced as a sorcerer by the University of Louvain, the most complete account of his system is given in two works by his pupil Martin Sommer, published in Venice in 1619. In 1618 John Willis published Mnemonica, sive ars reminiscendi, containing a statement of the principles of topical or local mnemonics. Giordano Bruno included a memoria technica in his treatise De umbris idearum, other writers of this period are the Florentine Publicius, Johannes Romberch, Hieronimo Morafiot, Ars memoriae, and B. The philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz adopted a very similar to that of Wennsshein for his scheme of a form of writing common to all languages. Wennssheins method was adopted with slight changes afterward by the majority of subsequent original systems and it was modified and supplemented by Richard Grey, a priest who published a Memoria technica in 1730

27.
Astaxanthin
–
It belongs to a larger class of chemical compounds known as terpenes, terpenes are built from five carbon precursors, isopentenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl diphosphate. Astaxanthin is classified as a xanthophyll, but currently employed to describe compounds that have oxygen-containing moities, hydroxyl or ketone. Indeed, astaxanthin is a metabolite of zeaxanthin and/or canthaxanthin, containing both hydroxyl and ketone functional groups, like many carotenoids, astaxanthin is a colorful, lipid-soluble pigment. This colour is due to the chain of conjugated double bonds at the centre of the compound. Astaxanthin is found in microalgae, yeast, salmon, trout, krill, shrimp, crayfish, crustaceans, and it provides the red color of salmon meat and the red color of cooked shellfish. Professor Basil Weedons group was the first to prove the structure of astaxanthin by synthesis, astaxanthin, unlike several carotenes and one other known carotenoid, is not converted to vitamin A in the human body. Like other carotenoids, astaxanthin has self-limited absorption orally and such low toxicity by mouth that no toxic syndrome is known and it is an antioxidant with a slightly lower antioxidant activity in some model systems than other carotenoids. However, in living organisms the free-radical terminating effectiveness of each carotenoid is heavily modified by its lipid solubility, while astaxanthin is a natural dietary component, it can also be used as a food supplement. The supplement is intended for human, animal, and aquaculture consumption, the industrial production of astaxanthin comes from both natural and synthetic sources. The U. S. Food and Drug Administration has approved astaxanthin as a coloring for specific uses in animal. The European Commission considers it food dye and it is given the E number E161j, natural astaxanthin is generally recognized as safe by the FDA, but as a food coloring in the United States it is restricted to use in animal food. Astaxanthin is present in most red-coloured aquatic organisms, the content varies from species to species, but also from individual to individual as it is highly dependent on diet and living conditions. Astaxanthin, and other chemically related asta-carotenoids, has also found in a number of lichen species of the arctic zone. Currently, the primary source for natural astaxanthin is the microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis. Haematococcus pluvialis seems to accumulate the highest levels of astaxanthin in nature, commercially, more than 40 g of astaxanthin can be obtained from one kg of dry biomass. Haematococcus pluvialis has the advantage of the population doubling every week, however, it does require some expertise to grow the algae with a high astaxanthin content. Specifically, the microalgae are grown in two phases, first, in the green phase, the cells are given an abundance of nutrients to promote proliferation of the cells. The cells, with their high concentrations of astaxanthin, are then harvested, in contrast to synthetic and bacteria sources of astaxanthin, yeast sources of astaxanthin consist mainly of the -form, an important astaxanthin source in nature

28.
Cape Cod
–
Cape Cod is a geographic cape extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months, as defined by the Cape Cod Commissions enabling legislation, Cape Cod is conterminous with Barnstable County, Massachusetts. It extends from Provincetown in the northeast to Woods Hole in the southwest, since 1914, Cape Cod has been separated from the mainland by the Cape Cod Canal. The canal cuts 17.5 miles roughly across the base of the peninsula, though portions of the Cape Cod towns of Bourne. Two highway bridges cross the Cape Cod Canal, the Sagamore Bridge, in addition, the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge carries railway freight and limited passenger services onto the Cape. Cape territory is divided into fifteen towns with many villages, like Cape Cod itself, the islands south of the Cape have evolved from whaling and trading areas to become resort destinations, attracting wealthy families, celebrities, and other tourists. Both islands are also famous summer tourist destinations, commonly accessed by ferry from several locations on the cape, the phrases Cape Cod and the Islands and the Cape and Islands are often used to describe the whole region of Barnstable County, Dukes County, and Nantucket County. Several small islands right off Cape Cod, including Monomoy Island, Monomoscoy Island, Popponesset Island, the Forbes family-owned Naushon Island was first purchased by John Murray Forbes. Naushon is one of the Elizabeth Islands, many of which are privately owned, one of the publicly accessible Elizabeths is the southernmost island in the chain, Cuttyhunk, with a year-round population of 52 people. Cape Cod in particular is a retirement area,27. 8% of the population of Barnstable County is 65 years old or older. And the average age of residents is the highest of any area in New England, by voter registration numbers, Democrats outnumber Republicans by less in the three counties than in the whole of Massachusetts, to varying degrees. The name Cape Cod, as it was first used in 1602 and it remained that way for 125 years, until the Precinct of Cape Cod was incorporated as the Town of Provincetown. No longer in use over the ensuing decades, the name came to mean all of the land east of the Manomet and Scusset rivers – essentially along the line that became the Cape Cod Canal. The creation of the canal separated the majority of the peninsula from the mainland, most agencies, including the Cape Cod Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, treat the Cape as an island with regard to disaster preparedness, groundwater management, and the like. Cape Cod Bay lies in between Cape Cod and the mainland – bounded on the north by a line between Provincetown and Marshfield. North of Cape Cod Bay is Massachusetts Bay, which contains the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, the Atlantic Ocean is to the east of Cape Cod, and to the southwest of the Cape is Buzzards Bay. The Cape Cod Canal, completed in 1916, connects Buzzards Bay to Cape Cod Bay, Cape Cod extends 65 miles into the Atlantic Ocean, with a breadth of between 1–20 miles, and covers more than 400 miles of shoreline. Its elevation ranges from 306 feet at its highest point, at the top of Pine Hill, in the Bourne portion of Joint Base Cape Cod, one of the biggest barrier islands in the world, Cape Cod shields much of the Massachusetts coastline from North Atlantic storm waves

29.
Argentina
–
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a federal republic in the southern half of South America. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2, Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the second largest in Latin America, and the largest Spanish-speaking one. The country is subdivided into provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system, Argentina claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The earliest recorded presence in the area of modern-day Argentina dates back to the Paleolithic period. The country has its roots in Spanish colonization of the region during the 16th century, Argentina rose as the successor state of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a Spanish overseas viceroyalty founded in 1776. The country thereafter enjoyed relative peace and stability, with waves of European immigration radically reshaping its cultural. The almost-unparalleled increase in prosperity led to Argentina becoming the seventh wealthiest developed nation in the world by the early 20th century, Argentina retains its historic status as a middle power in international affairs, and is a prominent regional power in the Southern Cone and Latin America. Argentina has the second largest economy in South America, the third-largest in Latin America and is a member of the G-15 and it is the country with the second highest Human Development Index in Latin America with a rating of very high. Because of its stability, market size and growing high-tech sector, the description of the country by the word Argentina has to be found on a Venice map in 1536. In English the name Argentina probably comes from the Spanish language, however the naming itself is not Spanish, Argentina means in Italian of silver, silver coloured, probably borrowed from the Old French adjective argentine of silver > silver coloured already mentioned in the 12th century. The French word argentine is the form of argentin and derives of argent silver with the suffix -in. The Italian naming Argentina for the country implies Argentina Terra land of silver or Argentina costa coast of silver, in Italian, the adjective or the proper noun is often used in an autonomous way as a substantive and replaces it and it is said lArgentina. The name Argentina was probably first given by the Venitian and Genoese navigators, in Spanish and Portuguese, the words for silver are respectively plata and prata and of silver is said plateado and prateado. Argentina was first associated with the silver mountains legend, widespread among the first European explorers of the La Plata Basin. The first written use of the name in Spanish can be traced to La Argentina, a 1602 poem by Martín del Barco Centenera describing the region, the 1826 constitution included the first use of the name Argentine Republic in legal documents. The name Argentine Confederation was also used and was formalized in the Argentine Constitution of 1853. In 1860 a presidential decree settled the name as Argentine Republic

30.
Gulf of Maine
–
The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America. It is delineated by Cape Cod at the tip of Massachusetts in the southwest. Both Massachusetts Bay and the Bay of Fundy are included within the Gulf of Maine system, as such, the Gulf of Maine is also home to the highest tidal variations on the planet. The coastline of the Gulf of Maine is predominantly rocky and scenic, the effects of glaciation are responsible for stripping sedimentary soil away from the coastline, therefore the gulf lacks the sandy beaches found to the south along the Eastern Seaboard. The underwater features of the seabed sculptured during the sea levels of the ice ages make the gulf a semi-enclosed sea bounded to the south. Georges Bank in particular, on its end, protects the Gulf of Maine waters from the Gulf Stream. Gulf of Maine waters are more influenced by the Labrador Current, making the gulf waters significantly colder. The Northeast Channel is the channel between the Gulf and the rest of the Northwest Atlantic. A secondary, shallower connection to the rest of the Atlantic is the Great South Channel, due to rapid warming of the Gulf of Maine, the water has become too hot for cod. This has pushed stocks towards collapse despite deep reductions in the number of fish caught, according to a study conducted by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. The watershed of the gulf encompasses an area of 69,115 sq mi, including all of Maine, 70% of New Hampshire, 56% of New Brunswick, 41% of Massachusetts, the watershed also includes a small southern portion of the Canadian province of Quebec. The gulfs relative proximity to Europe made it a destination for European colonization. French settlers founded a settlement on St. Croix Island in 1604, in the 1960s and 1970s there was a dispute between Canada and the United States over fishing and other resource rights in the Gulf of Maine, specifically the Georges Bank region. This dispute was taken to the International Court of Justice, which delineated a maritime boundary through the Gulf in 1984, Canada and the U. S. continue to disagree on the sovereignty of Machias Seal Island and the waters surrounding it in the northeastern part of the gulf

31.
Ballast water
–
Ballast is used in sailboats to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the sail. Insufficiently ballasted boats will tend to tip, or heel, excessively in high winds, too much heel may result in the boat capsizing. If a sailing vessel should need to voyage without cargo then ballast of little or no value would be loaded to keep the vessel upright, some or all of this ballast would then be discarded when cargo was loaded. The simplest form of ballast used in small day sailers is so-called live ballast, by sitting on the windward side of the hull, the heeling moment must lift the weight of the crew. On larger modern vessels, the keel is made of or filled with a high density material, such as concrete, iron, by placing the weight as low as possible the maximum righting moment can be extracted from the given mass. Traditional forms of ballast carried inside the hull were stones or sand, there are disadvantages to using high-density ballast. The first is the mass of the boat, a heavier boat sits lower in the water, increasing drag when it moves. A heavier boat is more difficult to put on a trailer. Secondly, since the ballast needs to be as low as possible, it is placed into a centerboard or retracting keel. The simplest solution is to use a fixed ballasted keel, but that makes the boat nearly incapable of sailing in shallow water. While prohibited by most class racing rules, some cutting-edge boats use a bulb of ballast on a long and this lets the ballast be placed on the windward side, providing a far greater righting moment with a lower angle of heel. A common type of ballast for small boats that avoids many of the problems of high-density ballast is water ballast, while it seems counter-intuitive that placing water in the hull would add any stability, adding water ballast below the vertical center of gravity increases stability. The water ballast does not need to be lifted above the waterline to affect stability and it is the relationship between centre of gravity and centre of buoyancy that dictates the righting moment. The advantage of water ballast is that the tanks can be emptied, reducing draft or the weight of the boat and water added back in after the boat is launched or cargo unloaded. Pumps can also be used to empty the leeward ballast tank and fill the tank as the boat tacks. On empty cargo vessels water is added to ballast tanks to increase propeller immersion, to improve steering, a disadvantage of water ballast is that water is not very dense and therefore the tanks required take up more space than other forms of ballast. Some manufacturers offer flexible ballast bags that are mounted outboard of the hull on both sides, and pumps that use the speed through the water for power. When under way, the pump can be used to fill the windward side and this system, while not very attractive, does allow significant gains in righting force with no modifications to the hull

32.
Japan
–
Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon

33.
Europe
–
Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa

34.
Baltic Sea
–
The Baltic Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, enclosed by Scandinavia, Finland, the Baltic countries, and the North European Plain. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga, the sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. The Baltic Sea is connected by waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea Canal. Traffic history Historically, the Kingdom of Denmark collected Sound Dues from ships at the border between the ocean and the land-locked Baltic Sea and they were collected in the Øresund at Kronborg castle near Helsingør, in the Great Belt at Nyborg. In the Little Belt, the site of intake was moved to Fredericia, the narrowest part of Little Belt is the Middelfart Sund near Middelfart. Oceanography Geographers widely agree that the physical border of the Baltic is a line drawn through the southern Danish islands, Drogden-Sill. The Drogden Sill is situated north of Køge Bugt and connects Dragør in the south of Copenhagen to Malmö, it is used by the Øresund Bridge, including the Drogden Tunnel. By this definition, the Danish Straits are part of the entrance, but the Bay of Mecklenburg, another usual border is the line between Falsterbo, Sweden and Stevns Klint, Denmark, as this is the southern border of Øresund. Its also the border between the shallow southern Øresund and notably deeper water, hydrography and biology Drogden Sill sets a limit to Øresund and Darss Sill, and a limit to the Belt Sea. The shallow sills are obstacles to the flow of salt water from the Kattegat into the basins around Bornholm. The Kattegat and the southwestern Baltic Sea are well oxygenated and have a rich biology, the remainder of the Sea is brackish, poor in oxygen and in species. While Tacitus called it Mare Suebicum after the Germanic people called the Suebi, the origin of the latter name is speculative. Adam of Bremen himself compared the sea with a belt, stating that it is so named because it stretches through the land as a belt and he might also have been influenced by the name of a legendary island mentioned in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder. Pliny mentions an island named Baltia with reference to accounts of Pytheas and it is possible that Pliny refers to an island named Basilia in On the Ocean by Pytheas. Baltia also might be derived from belt and mean near belt of sea, meanwhile, others have suggested that the name of the island originates from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhel meaning white, fair. This root and its meaning were retained in both Lithuanian and Latvian. On this basis, a related hypothesis holds that the name originated from this Indo-European root via a Baltic language such as Lithuanian, yet another explanation is that the name originally meant enclosed sea, bay as opposed to open sea. Some Swedish historians believe the name derives from the god Balder of Nordic mythology, in the Middle Ages the sea was known by variety of names

35.
North Sea
–
The North Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean located between Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the ocean through the English Channel in the south and it is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres wide, with an area of around 570,000 square kilometres. The North Sea has long been the site of important European shipping lanes as well as a major fishery, the North Sea was the centre of the Vikings rise. Subsequently, the Hanseatic League, the Netherlands, and the British each sought to dominate the North Sea and thus the access to the markets, as Germanys only outlet to the ocean, the North Sea continued to be strategically important through both World Wars. The coast of the North Sea presents a diversity of geological and geographical features, in the north, deep fjords and sheer cliffs mark the Norwegian and Scottish coastlines, whereas in the south it consists primarily of sandy beaches and wide mudflats. Due to the population, heavy industrialization, and intense use of the sea and area surrounding it. In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean, in the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively. In the north it is bordered by the Shetland Islands, and connects with the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres wide, with an area of 570,000 square kilometres and a volume of 54,000 cubic kilometres. Around the edges of the North Sea are sizeable islands and archipelagos, including Shetland, Orkney, the North Sea receives freshwater from a number of European continental watersheds, as well as the British Isles. A large part of the European drainage basin empties into the North Sea including water from the Baltic Sea, the largest and most important rivers flowing into the North Sea are the Elbe and the Rhine – Meuse watershed. Around 185 million people live in the catchment area of the rivers discharging into the North Sea encompassing some highly industrialized areas, for the most part, the sea lies on the European continental shelf with a mean depth of 90 metres. The only exception is the Norwegian trench, which extends parallel to the Norwegian shoreline from Oslo to a north of Bergen. It is between 20 and 30 kilometres wide and has a depth of 725 metres. The Dogger Bank, a vast moraine, or accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris and this feature has produced the finest fishing location of the North Sea. The Long Forties and the Broad Fourteens are large areas with uniform depth in fathoms. These great banks and others make the North Sea particularly hazardous to navigate, the Devils Hole lies 200 miles east of Dundee, Scotland. The feature is a series of trenches between 20 and 30 kilometres long,1 and 2 kilometres wide and up to 230 metres deep. Other areas which are less deep are Cleaver Bank, Fisher Bank, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the North Sea as follows, On the Southwest

36.
Mediterranean Sea
–
The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning inland or in the middle of land and it covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. The Strait of Gibraltar is a strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar. In oceanography, it is called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere. The Mediterranean Sea has a depth of 1,500 m. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia and it is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, the seas average north-south length, from Croatia’s southern shore to Libya, is approximately 800 km. The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara, has an area of approximately 2,510,000 square km. The sea was an important route for merchants and travelers of ancient times that allowed for trade, the history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri, the term Mediterranean derives from the Latin word mediterraneus, meaning amid the earth or between land, as it is between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The Ancient Greek name Mesogeios, is similarly from μέσο, between + γη, land, earth) and it can be compared with the Ancient Greek name Mesopotamia, meaning between rivers. The Mediterranean Sea has historically had several names, for example, the Carthaginians called it the Syrian Sea and latter Romans commonly called it Mare Nostrum, and occasionally Mare Internum. Another name was the Sea of the Philistines, from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites, the sea is also called the Great Sea in the General Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer. In Ottoman Turkish, it has also been called Bahr-i Sefid, in Modern Hebrew, it has been called HaYam HaTikhon, the Middle Sea, reflecting the Seas name in ancient Greek, Latin, and modern languages in both Europe and the Middle East. Similarly, in Modern Arabic, it is known as al-Baḥr al-Mutawassiṭ, in Turkish, it is known as Akdeniz, the White Sea since among Turks the white colour represents the west. Several ancient civilisations were located around the Mediterranean shores, and were influenced by their proximity to the sea. It provided routes for trade, colonisation, and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages, due to the shared climate, geology, and access to the sea, cultures centered on the Mediterranean tended to have some extent of intertwined culture and history. Two of the most notable Mediterranean civilisations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states, later, when Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum

37.
Black Sea
–
The Black Sea is a body of water between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is supplied by a number of rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Rioni, Southern Bug. The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km2, a depth of 2,212 m. It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south and by the Caucasus Mountains to the east, the longest east-west extent is about 1,175 km. The Black Sea has a water balance, that is, a net outflow of water 300 km3 per year through the Bosphorus. Mediterranean water flows into the Black Sea as part of a two-way hydrological exchange, the Black Sea drains into the Mediterranean Sea and then the Atlantic Ocean, via the Aegean Sea and various straits. The Bosphorus Strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and these waters separate Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The Black Sea is also connected to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch, the water level has varied significantly. Due to these variations in the level in the basin. At certain critical water levels it is possible for connections with surrounding water bodies to become established and it is through the most active of these connective routes, the Turkish Straits, that the Black Sea joins the world ocean. When this hydrological link is not present, the Black Sea is a basin, operating independently of the global ocean system. Currently the Black Sea water level is high, thus water is being exchanged with the Mediterranean. The Turkish Straits connect the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea, and comprise the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Black Sea as follows, On the Southwest. The Northeastern limit of the Sea of Marmara, a line joining Cape Takil and Cape Panaghia. Strabos Geographica reports that in antiquity, the Black Sea was often just called the Sea, for the most part, Graeco-Roman tradition refers to the Black Sea as the Hospitable sea, Εὔξεινος Πόντος Eúxeinos Póntos. This is a euphemism replacing an earlier Inhospitable Sea, Πόντος Ἄξεινος Póntos Áxeinos, strabo thinks that the Black Sea was called inhospitable before Greek colonization because it was difficult to navigate, and because its shores were inhabited by savage tribes. The name was changed to hospitable after the Milesians had colonized the southern shoreline and it is also possible that the epithet Áxeinos arose by popular etymology from a Scythian word axšaina- unlit, dark, the designation Black Sea may thus date from antiquity. A map of Asia dating to 1570, entitled Asiae Nova Descriptio, from Abraham Orteliuss Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, english-language writers of the 18th century often used the name Euxine Sea to refer to the Black Sea

38.
Rochefort, Charente-Maritime
–
Rochefort is a commune in southwestern France, a port on the Charente estuary. It is a sub-prefecture of the Charente-Maritime department, in December 1665, Rochefort was chosen by Jean-Baptiste Colbert as a place of refuge, defense and supply for the French Navy. The Arsenal de Rochefort served as a base and dockyard until it closed in 1926. In September 1757, Rochefort was the target of an ambitious British raid during the Seven Years War, another infrastructure of early Rochefort from 1766 was its bagne, a high-security penal colony involving hard labor. Bagnes were then common fixtures in military harbors and naval bases, such as Toulon or Brest, Rochefort is a notable example of 17th-century ville nouvelle or new town, which means its design and building resulted from a political decree. The reason for building Rochefort was to an extent that royal power could hardly depend on rebellious Protestant La Rochelle. Well into the 20th century, Rochefort remained primarily a garrison town, the tourist industry, which had long existed due to the towns spa, gained emphasis in the 1990s. Charles Rigault de Genouilly, French admiral, conqueror of Vietnam and his house has been turned into a museum Jean-Joseph Sanfourche was a French artist and sculptor. Amédée William Merlaud-Ponty, Governor General of French West Africa, pauline Réage, pseudonym of Anne Desclos, author Maurice Merleau-Ponty, philosopher Pierre Salviac, is a French journalist, former commentator of rugby-match and since then polemicist. Loïc Le Marrec French volleyball coach He has a total of 140 teams in France

39.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks

40.
Crab fishery
–
Crab fisheries are fisheries which capture or farm crabs. True crabs make up 20% of all crustaceans caught and farmed worldwide, the horse crab, Portunus trituberculatus accounts for one quarter of that total. Other important species include flower crabs, snow crabs, blue crabs, edible or brown crabs, Dungeness crab and mud crabs, the FAO groups fishery catches using the ISSCAAP classification. ISSCAAP has a group for crabs and sea-spiders, and another group for king crabs, the following table summarises crab production from 2000 to 2008, both caught wild and from aquaculture, in tonnes. Crab trap List of harvested aquatic animals by weight

41.
Greece
–
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens

42.
Overfishing
–
Overfishing is a form of overexploitation where fish stocks are reduced to below acceptable levels. Overfishing can occur in bodies of any sizes, such as ponds, rivers, lakes or oceans. Sustained overfishing can lead to critical depensation, where the population is no longer able to sustain itself. Some forms of overfishing, for example the overfishing of sharks, has led to the upset of entire marine ecosystems, the ability of a fishery to recover from overfishing depends on whether the ecosystems conditions are suitable for the recovery. For example, once trout have been overfished, carp might take over in a way makes it impossible for the trout to re-establish a breeding population. Overfishing occurs when fish are caught than the population can replace through natural reproduction. Gathering as many fish as possible may seem like a profitable practice, the results not only affect the balance of life in the oceans, but also the social and economic well-being of the coastal communities who depend on fish for their way of life. Overfishing has significantly affected many fisheries around the world, as much as 85% of the worlds fisheries may be over-exploited, depleted, fully exploited or in recovery from exploitation. Significant overfishing has been observed in pre-industrial times, in particular, the overfishing of the western Atlantic Ocean from the earliest days of European colonisation of the Americas has been well documented. Following World War Two, industrial fishing rapidly expanded with rapid increases in worldwide fishing catches, however, many fisheries have either collapsed or degraded to a point where increased catches are no longer possible. Daniel Pauly, a fisheries scientist known for pioneering work on the impacts on global fisheries, has commented. We are gradually winning this war to exterminate them, and to see this destruction happen, for nothing really – for no reason – that is a bit frustrating. Examples of overfishing exist in such as the North Sea, the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. In these locations, overfishing has not only proved disastrous to fish stocks, the Peruvian coastal anchovy fisheries crashed in the 1970s after overfishing and an El Niño season largely depleted anchovies from its waters. Anchovies were a natural resource in Peru, indeed,1971 alone yielded 10.2 million metric tons of anchovies. However, the five years saw the Peruvian fleets catch amount to only about 4 million tons. This was a loss to Perus economy. The collapse of the cod fishery off Newfoundland, and the 1992 decision by Canada to impose a moratorium on the Grand Banks, is a dramatic example of the consequences of overfishing

43.
Drum (fish)
–
The Sciaenidae are a family of fish commonly called drums or croakers in reference to the repetitive throbbing or drumming sounds they make. The family includes the weakfish, and consists of about 275 species in about 70 genera, a sciaenid has a long dorsal fin reaching nearly to the tail, and a notch between the rays and spines of the dorsal, although the two parts are actually separate. Drums are somberly coloured, usually in shades of brown, with a line on each side that extends to the tip of the caudal fin. The anal fin usually has two spines, while the fins are deeply notched or separate. Most species have a rounded or pointed caudal fin, the mouth is set low and is usually inferior. Their croaking mechanism involves the beating of abdominal muscles against the swim bladder, sciaenids are found worldwide, in both fresh and salt water, and are typically benthic carnivores, feeding on invertebrates and smaller fish. They are small to medium-sized, bottom-dwelling fishes living primarily in estuaries, bays, most of these fish types avoid clear waters, such as coral reefs and oceanic islands, with a few notable exceptions. They live in warm-temperate and tropical waters and are best represented in major rivers in Southeast Asia, northeast South America, the Gulf of Mexico, and they are excellent food and sport fish, and are commonly caught by surf and pier fishers. A notable trait of sciaenids is the ability to produce a croaking sound, however the pitch and use of croaking varies species to species. The croaking ability is a characteristic of sciaenids. The croaking mechanism is used by males as a call in some species. To produce the sound, special muscles vibrate against the swim bladder. These muscles are called sonic muscle fibres, and run horizontally along the body on both sides around the swim bladder, connected to a central tendon that surrounds the swim bladder ventrally. The sciaenids large swim bladder is more expansive and branched than other species, in some species the sonic muscle fibres are only present in males. These muscles strengthen during the season and are allowed to atrophy the rest of the time. In other species, most notably the Atlantic croaker, the mechanism is present in both sexes and remains active year-round. These species are thought to use croaking for communication, such as announcing hazards, in some species, croaking is used for communication aside from attracting mates. For those species that have year-round croaking ability, the croaks may serve as a warning during group feeding

44.
Striped bass
–
It has also been widely introduced into inland recreational fisheries across the United States. Striped bass found in the Gulf of Mexico are a separate strain referred to as Gulf Coast striped bass. The striped bass is the fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, and South Carolina, and the state saltwater fish of New York, New Jersey, Virginia. The history of the striped bass fishery in North America dates back to the Colonial period, many written accounts by some of the first European settlers describe the immense abundance of striped bass, along with alewives, traveling and spawning up most rivers in the coastal Northeast. The striped bass is a member of the Moronidae family in shape, having a streamlined. Common mature size is 8 to 40 pounds, the largest specimen recorded was 124 pounds, netted in 1896. Striped bass are believed to live for up to 30 years, the maximum length is 1.8 m. The average size is about 67–100 cm and 4. 5–14.5 kg, striped bass are native to the Atlantic coastline of North America from the St. Lawrence River into the Gulf of Mexico to approximately Louisiana. They are anadromous fish migrate between fresh and salt water. Spawning takes place in fresh water, striped bass have also been introduced into waters in Ecuador, Iran, Latvia, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey, primarily for sport fishing and aquaculture. The spawning success of striped bass has been studied in the San Francisco Bay-Delta water system, at levels as low as 200 mg/l TDS, an observable diminution of spawning productivity occurs. They can be found in lakes, ponds, streams, and this pressure on their food source was putting their own population at risk due to the population of prey naturally not coming back to the same spawning areas. In Canada, the province of Quebec designated the striped bass population of the Saint Lawrence as extirpated in 1996, analysis of available data implicated overfishing and dredging in the disappearance. In 2002, a program was successful. Striped bass spawn in water, and although they have been successfully adapted to freshwater habitat. Four important bodies of water with breeding stocks of striped bass are, Chesapeake Bay, Massachusetts Bay/Cape Cod, Hudson River, many of the rivers and tributaries that emptied into the Atlantic, had at one time, bred stock of striped bass. One of the largest breeding areas is the Chesapeake Bay, where populations from Chesapeake, stocking of striped bass was discontinued at Lake Mead in 1973 once natural reproduction was verified. Striped bass have also been hybridized with white bass to produce hybrid striped bass also known as wiper, whiterock bass, sunshine bass, palmetto bass and these hybrids have been stocked in many freshwater areas across the US

45.
Leiostomus xanthurus
–
The Spot or Norfolk spot is a small short-lived saltwater fish in the family Sciaenidae. The species inhabits estuary and coastal waters from Massachusetts to Texas and it is the only species in the genus Leiostomus. Spot are frequently caught by anglers and are good to eat. Their diet consists largely of detritus, small crustaceans. Bloodworms are the ideal bait when fishing for spot, the list can go on for some time however these are some of the most known predators of the spot fish. Fishermen also use juvenile spot as whole live bait to catch summer flounder, spotted seatrout, puppy drum, the North Carolina Spot Festival is held at Hampstead, North Carolina, on the last weekend of September. Spot are protected and monitored under the Chesapeake Bay Atlantic Croaker, the 1987 fishery management plan of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission was aimed mainly at reducing the numbers of juvenile fish taken as bycatch by shrimpers. At least one project in New Jersey is attempting to culture spot for potential commercial production. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds

Taxonomy (biology)
–
Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxon

1.
Title page of Systema Naturae, Leiden, 1735

2.
Evolution of the vertebrates at class level, width of spindles indicating number of families. Spindle diagrams are typical for Evolutionary taxonomy

3.
The same relationship, expressed as a cladogram typical for cladistics

4.
Type specimen for Nepenthes smilesii, a tropical pitcher plant.

Animal
–
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia. The animal kingdom emerged as a clade within Apoikozoa as the group to the choanoflagellates. Animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently at some point in their lives and their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some unde

1.
Carl Linnaeus, known as the father of modern taxonomy

2.
Had'n

3.
The use of love darts by the land snail Monachoides vicinus is a form of sexual selection

4.
A newt lung cell stained with fluorescent dyes undergoing the early anaphase stage of mitosis

Arthropod
–
An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda, which includes the insects, arachnids, myriapods, arthropods are characterized by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chitin, often mineralised with calcium carbonate. The arthropod body plan consists of

2.
Head

3.
Cicada climbing out of its exoskeleton while attached to tree

4.
Head of a wasp with three ocelli (centre), and compound eyes at the left and right

Crustacean
–
Crustaceans form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, woodlice and barnacles. In other words, some crustaceans are more related to insects. The 67,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at 0.1 mm, to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span of up to

2.
A shed carapace of a lady crab, part of the hard exoskeleton

3.
Body structure of a typical crustacean – krill

4.
Eggs of Potamon fluviatile, a freshwater crab

Malacostraca
–
Malacostraca is the largest of the six classes of crustaceans, containing about 40,000 living species, divided among 16 orders. They are abundant in all environments and have colonised freshwater. They are segmented animals, united by a body plan comprising 20 body segments, and divided into a head, thorax. The name Malacostraca was coined by a Fre

2.
Leptostraca such as Nebalia bipes retain the primitive condition of having seven abdominal segments.

3.
Grapsus grapsus, a terrestrial crab

4.
Squilla empusa, a mantis shrimp

Decapoda
–
The Decapoda or decapods are an order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, including many familiar groups, such as crayfish, crabs, lobsters, prawns, and shrimp. The order is estimated to contain nearly 15,000 species in around 2,700 genera, nearly half of these species are crabs, with the shrimp and Anomura (including hermit crabs, porcel

Crab
–
Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting tail, usually entirely hidden under the thorax. They live in all the oceans, in fresh water. Many other animals with similar names – such as crabs, king crabs, porcelain crabs, horseshoe crabs. Crabs are generally covered with an exoskeleton, com

2.
Gecarcinus quadratus, a land crab from Central and South America

3.
Crab (Pachygrapsus marmoratus) on Istrian coast, Adriatic Sea.

4.
Female crab Xantho poressa at spawning time in the Black Sea, carrying eggs under her abdomen.

Portunidae
–
Portunidae is a family of crabs which contains the swimming crabs. Portunid crabs are characterised by the flattening of the pair of legs into broad paddles. This ability, together with their strong, sharp claws, allows many species to be fast and its members include many well-known shoreline crabs, such as the European shore crab, blue crab, velve

Binomial nomenclature
–
Such a name is called a binomial name, a binomen, binominal name or a scientific name, more informally it is also called a Latin name. The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs, for example, humans belong to the genus Homo and within this genus to the species Homo sapiens. The formal introduction of system of nami

1.
Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), a Swedish botanist, invented the modern system of binomial nomenclature.

Mary J. Rathbun
–
Mary Jane Rathbun was an American zoologist who specialized in crustaceans. She worked at the Smithsonian Institution, often unaided, from 1884 until her death and she described more than a thousand new species and subspecies and many higher taxa. Mary Jane Rathbun was born on June 11,1860, in Buffalo, New York and her mother died when she was only

1.
Mary J. Rathbun at work

2.
Rathbun in 1927

Synonym (taxonomy)
–
For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies. This name is no longer in use, it is now a synonym of the current scientific name which is Picea abies, unlike synonyms in other contexts, in taxonomy a synonym is not interchangeable with the name of which it is a synonym. In taxonomy,

1.
The Latin Caudata and Greek Urodela both mean "tailed" and have been used as a scientific name at the rank of order for the salamanders (as opposed to the tail-less frogs). Thus they are synonyms.

2.
The common dandelion Taraxacum officinale sensu lato is an extremely widespread group of apomictic lineages, and some scientists apply the "biological species concept" to divide it into many distinct species; other scientists regard all the names for those independent species as synonyms.

Core Banks
–
The Core Banks are barrier islands in North Carolina, part of the Outer Banks and Cape Lookout National Seashore. New Drum Inlet, Old Drum Inlet and Ophelia Inlet now separate the islands, the Core Banks are now uninhabited. S. Coast Guard Station, and several island homes, islands can be reached by two vehicle ferries. One ferry crosses Core Sound

1.
Cape Lookout Lighthouse

2.
1584 map by John White showing Core Banks.

3.
Access by ferry

4.
View from Cape Lookout Lighthouse looking North East

North Carolina
–
North Carolina is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west, Virginia to the north, North Carolina is the 28th most extensive and the 9th most populous of the U. S. states. The state is divided into 100 counties, the most populous municipality is Charlot

1.
North Carolina topographic map

2.
Flag

3.
The Blue Ridge Mountains as seen from the Blue Ridge Parkway.

4.
Deer in the Eno River as it flows through the Piedmont region of North Carolina

Greek language
–
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Li

1.
Idealized portrayal of Homer

2.
regions where Greek is the official language

3.
Greek language road sign, A27 Motorway, Greece

Latin
–
Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages

1.
Latin inscription, in the Colosseum

2.
Julius Caesar 's Commentarii de Bello Gallico is one of the most famous classical Latin texts of the Golden Age of Latin. The unvarnished, journalistic style of this patrician general has long been taught as a model of the urbane Latin officially spoken and written in the floruit of the Roman republic.

Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally be

1.
The Atlantic Ocean as seen from the western coast of Portugal

2.
The Atlantic Ocean, not including Arctic and Antarctic regions

3.
The Atlantic Ocean as seen from Atlantic City, New Jersey.

4.
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina view of the Atlantic Ocean.

Gulf of Mexico
–
The Gulf of Mexico is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. The U. S. states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas border the Gulf on the north,

1.
Sediment in the Gulf of Mexico

2.
Undersea topography of the Gulf of Mexico

3.
Fishing boats in Biloxi

4.
Gulf beach near Sabine Pass

Louisiana
–
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States and its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the state in the U. S. with political subdivisions termed parishes. The largest parish by population is East Ba

1.
Louisiana entrance sign off Interstate 20 in Madison Parish east of Tallulah.

2.
Flag

3.
Aerial view of Louisiana wetland habitats.

4.
A field of yellow wildflowers in Saint Bernard Parish, Louisiana

Chesapeake Bay
–
It is the largest estuary in North America. With its northern portion in Maryland and the part in Virginia. More than 150 major rivers and streams flow into the bays 64, 299-square-mile drainage basin, the bay is approximately 200 miles long from its northern headwaters in the Susquehanna River to its outlet in the Atlantic Ocean. It is 2.8 miles w

1.
The Chesapeake Bay – Landsat photo

2.
View of the Eastern Bay in Maryland at sunset

3.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge, near Annapolis, Maryland

4.
Food chain diagram for waterbirds of the Chesapeake Bay

New Jersey
–
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania, New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state but the 11th-most populous and the most densely populated of the 50 United States. New Jerse

1.
The New Jersey Botanical Garden at Skylands in Ringwood State Park, Passaic and Bergen Counties

2.
Flag

3.
Washington Crossing the Delaware during the New York and New Jersey campaign, winter 1777

4.
George Washington rallying his troops at the Battle of Princeton

Maryland
–
The states largest city is Baltimore, and its capital is Annapolis. Among its occasional nicknames are Old Line State, the Free State, the state is named after Henrietta Maria of France, the wife of Charles I of England. George Calvert was the first Lord of Baltimore and the first English proprietor of the colonial grant. Maryland was the state to

1.
Western Maryland: known for its heavily forested mountains. A panoramic view of Deep Creek Lake and the surrounding Appalachian Mountains in Garrett County.

2.
Flag

3.
Dramatic example of Maryland's fall line, a change in rock type and elevation that creates waterfalls in many areas along the Southwest to Northeast geological boundary that crosses the state. Great Falls, cliffs and rapids.

4.
Typical freshwater river above the tidal zone. The Patapsco River includes the famous Thomas Viaduct and is part of the Patapsco Valley State Park. Later, the river forms the Inner Harbor as it empties into the Chesapeake Bay.

List of U.S. state crustaceans
–
As of May 2012, three U. S. states have designated state crustaceans, Louisiana has the freshwater crayfish Procambarus clarkii. Maryland has the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, in 1983, the state of Louisiana designated the Louisiana crawfish, Procambarus clarkii, as their state crustacean. The native range of P. clarkii is along the Gulf Coast fr

1.
Procambarus clarkii, known as the Louisiana crawfish, is the state crustacean of Louisiana.

2.
Callinectes sapidus, the blue crab, is the state crustacean of Maryland.

3.
The Dungeness crab, Metacarcinus magister, is the state crustacean of Oregon.

United States Capitol
–
The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol Building or Capitol Hill, is the home of the United States Congress, and the seat of the legislative branch of the U. S. federal government. It sits atop Capitol Hill at the end of the National Mall in Washington. Though not at the center of the Federal District, the Capitol forms the origin point

1.
The west front of the United States Capitol in 2013, before dome restoration scaffolding was erected

2.
The east front of the United States Capitol (2013 view)

3.
The Capitol at night (2013 view)

4.
Design for the U.S. Capitol, "An Elevation for a Capitol", by James Diamond was one of many submitted in the 1792 contest, but not selected.

Washington Monument
–
It is the tallest monumental column in the world if all are measured above their pedestrian entrances. Although the stone structure was completed in 1884, internal ironwork, the knoll, a difference in shading of the marble, visible approximately 150 feet or 27% up, shows where construction was halted and later resumed with marble from a different s

1.
(January 2006)

2.
Sketch of the proposed Washington Monument by architect Robert Mills (circa 1836)

Carapace
–
A carapace is a dorsal section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the underside is called the plastron, in crustaceans, the carapace functions as a protective cover over the cephalothorax.

1.
The molted carapace of a lady crab from Long Beach, New York.

2.
Diagram of a prawn, with the carapace highlighted in red.

3.
Diagram of an arachnid, with the carapace highlighted in purple

4.
A Greek tortoise shell opened to show the skeleton from below

Mnemonic
–
A mnemonic device, or memory device is any learning technique that aids information retention in the human memory. Mnemonics make use of encoding, retrieval cues, and imagery as specific tools to encode any given information in a way that allows for efficient storage. Mnemonics aid original information in becoming associated with something more mea

1.
Detail of Giordano Bruno 's statue in Rome. Bruno was famous for his mnemonics, some of which he included in his treatises De umbris idearum and Ars Memoriae.

2.
Knuckle mnemonic for the number of days in each month of the Gregorian Calendar. Each knuckle represents a 31-day month.

1.
Crustacyanin is a biological pigment responsible for giving lobsters their blue colour.

Astaxanthin
–
It belongs to a larger class of chemical compounds known as terpenes, terpenes are built from five carbon precursors, isopentenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl diphosphate. Astaxanthin is classified as a xanthophyll, but currently employed to describe compounds that have oxygen-containing moities, hydroxyl or ketone. Indeed, astaxanthin is a metabo

1.
Pandalus borealis (Arctic shrimp) is colored by astaxanthin, and is used commercially as an astaxanthin source.

3.
Krill is also used as an astaxanthin source

Cape Cod
–
Cape Cod is a geographic cape extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months, as defined by the Cape Cod Commissions enabling legislation, Cape Cod is conterminous with Barns

1.
Cape Cod National Seashore

2.
The Cape and Islands

3.
The dunes on Sandy Neck are part of the barrier beach that helps prevent coastal erosion.

4.
Barnstable County historical map, 1890

Argentina
–
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a federal republic in the southern half of South America. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2, Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the second largest in Latin America, and the largest Spanish-speaking one. The country is subdivided into provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Ai

1.
The Cave of the Hands in Santa Cruz province, with indigenous artwork dating from 13,000–9,000 years ago

3.
The surrender of Beresford to Santiago de Liniers during the British invasions of the Río de la Plata

4.
Portrait of General José de San Martin, Libertador of Argentina, Chile and Peru

Gulf of Maine
–
The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America. It is delineated by Cape Cod at the tip of Massachusetts in the southwest. Both Massachusetts Bay and the Bay of Fundy are included within the Gulf of Maine system, as such, the Gulf of Maine is also home to the highest tidal variations on the planet. The co

1.
Gulf of Maine

2.
Major features of the Gulf of Maine

3.
Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, in mid-September 2004

Ballast water
–
Ballast is used in sailboats to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the sail. Insufficiently ballasted boats will tend to tip, or heel, excessively in high winds, too much heel may result in the boat capsizing. If a sailing vessel should need to voyage without cargo then ballast of little or no value would be loaded to keep the vessel up

1.
One of the functions of a yacht's keel is to provide ballast.

Japan
–
Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referr

1.
The Golden Hall and five-storey pagoda of Hōryū-ji, among the oldest wooden buildings in the world, National Treasures, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site

3.
Samurai warriors face Mongols, during the Mongol invasions of Japan. The Kamikaze, two storms, are said to have saved Japan from Mongol fleets.

4.
Samurai could kill a commoner for the slightest insult and were widely feared by the Japanese population. Edo period, 1798

Europe
–
Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europ

1.
Reconstruction of Herodotus ' world map

3.
A medieval T and O map from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of Noah — Asia to Sem (Shem), Europe to Iafeth (Japheth), and Africa to Cham (Ham)

4.
Early modern depiction of Europa regina ('Queen Europe') and the mythical Europa of the 8th century BC.

Baltic Sea
–
The Baltic Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, enclosed by Scandinavia, Finland, the Baltic countries, and the North European Plain. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga, the sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. The Baltic Sea is connected by waterways to the

1.
Cape Arkona on the island of Rügen in Germany, was a sacred site of the Slavs before Christianization.

2.
Map of the Baltic Sea

3.
The naval Battle of the Sound took place on 8 November 1658 during the Dano-Swedish War.

4.
The burning Cap Arcona shortly after the attacks, 3 May 1945. Only 350 of the 4,500 prisoners who had been aboard the Cap Arcona survived.

North Sea
–
The North Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean located between Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the ocean through the English Channel in the south and it is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres wide, with an area of around 5

1.
North Sea

2.
The German North Sea coast

3.
The Afsluitdijk (Closure-dike) is a major dam in the Netherlands

4.
Zuid-Beveland, North Sea flood of 1953

Mediterranean Sea
–
The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning inland or in the middle of land and it covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. The Strait o

1.
Circa the 6th century BCE: In ancient times the Mediterranean provided sources of food and local commerce and direct routes for trade and communications, colonisation, and war. Numerous cities and colonies were situated at its shores or within the basin: Greek (red) and Phoenician (yellow) colonies in antiquity; and other cities (grey), including the provincial "Rom".

2.
Map of the Mediterranean Sea

3.
With its highly indented coastline and large number of islands, Greece has the longest Mediterranean coastline.

4.
The Battle of Lepanto, 1571, ended in victory for the European Holy League against the Ottoman Turks.

Black Sea
–
The Black Sea is a body of water between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is supplied by a number of rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Rioni, Southern Bug. The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km2, a depth of 2,212 m. It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south and

1.
The Black Sea in Batumi, Georgia

2.
Black Sea

3.
The port of the Black Sea in Yevpatoria, Crimea

4.
Swallow's Nest in Crimea

Rochefort, Charente-Maritime
–
Rochefort is a commune in southwestern France, a port on the Charente estuary. It is a sub-prefecture of the Charente-Maritime department, in December 1665, Rochefort was chosen by Jean-Baptiste Colbert as a place of refuge, defense and supply for the French Navy. The Arsenal de Rochefort served as a base and dockyard until it closed in 1926. In Se

1.
Rochefort

2.
Rochefort (centre-right) seen from Spot Satellite

3.
Rochefort arsenal, in 1690

France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territ

1.
One of the Lascaux paintings: a horse – Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC

2.
Flag

3.
The Maison Carrée was a temple of the Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the Roman Empire.

4.
With Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the Frankish monarchy, elective and secular until then, became hereditary and of divine right.

Crab fishery
–
Crab fisheries are fisheries which capture or farm crabs. True crabs make up 20% of all crustaceans caught and farmed worldwide, the horse crab, Portunus trituberculatus accounts for one quarter of that total. Other important species include flower crabs, snow crabs, blue crabs, edible or brown crabs, Dungeness crab and mud crabs, the FAO groups fi

1.
Small crab boat in harbour at A Illa de Arousa, Galicia, Spain

2.
Fishermen sorting velvet crab at Fionnphort, Scotland

3.
Crab boats moored in Dutch Harbor, Alaska

4.
Portunus trituberculatus

Greece
–
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan pe

1.
Fresco displaying the Minoan ritual of "bull leaping", found in Knossos, Crete.

2.
Flag

3.
The Lion Gate, Mycenae

4.
The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens is one of the best known symbols of classical Greece.

Overfishing
–
Overfishing is a form of overexploitation where fish stocks are reduced to below acceptable levels. Overfishing can occur in bodies of any sizes, such as ponds, rivers, lakes or oceans. Sustained overfishing can lead to critical depensation, where the population is no longer able to sustain itself. Some forms of overfishing, for example the overfis

1.
400 tons of jack mackerel caught by a Chilean purse seiner

2.
Fishing down the food web

3.
Atlantic cod stocks were severely overfished in the 1970s and 1980s, leading to their abrupt collapse in 1992

Drum (fish)
–
The Sciaenidae are a family of fish commonly called drums or croakers in reference to the repetitive throbbing or drumming sounds they make. The family includes the weakfish, and consists of about 275 species in about 70 genera, a sciaenid has a long dorsal fin reaching nearly to the tail, and a notch between the rays and spines of the dorsal, alth

1.
Sciaenidae

2.
Juvenile spotted drumfish, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles

Striped bass
–
It has also been widely introduced into inland recreational fisheries across the United States. Striped bass found in the Gulf of Mexico are a separate strain referred to as Gulf Coast striped bass. The striped bass is the fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, and South Carolina, and the state saltwater fish of New York, New Jersey, Virginia. The history

1.
A researcher holding up a large striped bass

2.
Striped bass

3.
Illustration of a group of striped bass

4.
A striped bass caught off the New Jersey coast

Leiostomus xanthurus
–
The Spot or Norfolk spot is a small short-lived saltwater fish in the family Sciaenidae. The species inhabits estuary and coastal waters from Massachusetts to Texas and it is the only species in the genus Leiostomus. Spot are frequently caught by anglers and are good to eat. Their diet consists largely of detritus, small crustaceans. Bloodworms are

1.
Several sets of (x, y) points, with the Pearson correlation coefficient of x and y for each set. Note that the correlation reflects the noisiness and direction of a linear relationship (top row), but not the slope of that relationship (middle), nor many aspects of nonlinear relationships (bottom). N.B.: the figure in the center has a slope of 0 but in that case the correlation coefficient is undefined because the variance of Y is zero.

1.
Achieving sustainability will enable the Earth to continue supporting human life.

2.
Batad rice terraces, The Philippines —UNESCO World Heritage site

3.
Urban sustainability analysis of the greater urban area of the city of Sao Paulo using the ‘Circles of Sustainability' method of the UN and Metropolis Association. For more information see James, Paul; with Magee, Liam; Scerri, Andy; Steger, Manfred B. (2015). Urban Sustainability in Theory and Practice: Circles of Sustainability. London: Routledge.

4.
Ecological footprint for different nations compared to their Human Development Index (HDI)

1.
Several leaders of the state government at a conference in May 2008. From left to right: Lieutenant Governor Anthony G. Brown, President of the Senate Mike Miller, Governor Martin O'Malley, and Speaker of the House Michael E. Busch.

1.
Penaeus monodon, often called the giant tiger prawn, is an important species for aquaculture.

2.
Although prawns are sometimes defined as large freshwater shrimp, many counter-examples are seen; the "bigclaw river shrimp", Macrobrachium carcinus, is a large caridean shrimp that lives in fresh water, and is rarely referred to as a "prawn".